Fire Engineerings Handbook for Firefighter - Essay Example

Heat exhaustion, on the other hand, is the body's reaction to an extreme loss of salt and water, generally through extreme sweating (Corbett, 2009). These two types of stress affect firefighters in the following ways. Firefighters find themselves in a situation where they have to assess the conditions to determine how to deal with the incident. When dealing with highly hazardous energy, they need to have knowledge of the source of the energy, its transmission, and related risks. Although firefighters are highly trained professionals, there are certain conditions they face which cannot be controlled.

Firefighting is a risk-taking job, and when firefighters are in an incident, they are exposed to excess heat and smoke. They are usually very active to ensure that, they contain the fire by following all the laid down procedures. Their body temperatures rise as a result of their work and as well as the high temperatures in their work environment. This leads to heatstroke and heat exhaustion stresses to some or to all the firefighters dealing with the fire incident. Treat heatstroke patients by moving them to a cool, shaded area, and cool them using various methods such as wetting their clothes.

Treat heat exhaustion patients by having them rest in a cool, shaded area, and having them drink plenty of water (Corbett, 2009).