BEAUMONT, Texas — As Southeast Texas begins to heat up for another hot summer, firefighters are getting ready to battle the heat as well as the flames.
While firefighters are trained to protect the public, they also need to protect themselves when it comes to heat exhaustion.
It all begins with their equipment, especially those big heavy coats and pants, known as "bunker gear," that they were while fighting fires.
The inside of their "bunker gear" can reach temperatures of more than 100 degrees and make the job more strenuous, according to Groves Fire Chief Lance Billeaud.
In the extreme heat of summer this can act as an extra weight on these first responders.
"It's heated up a little early," Billeaud said. "And so you’ve got to take more precautions a lot earlier than we normally do."
In Groves, as in most departments, firefighters are trained to protect themselves from heat exhaustion.
"We're trained to look for those signs," Billeaud explains. "They're sweating profusely, their skin turns red, you kind of get a little disoriented."
The outside of a firefighters' "bunker gear" is designed to keep the heat of the fire away from them while the inside protects them from the extreme heat, absorbing their sweat like a sponge, according to Billeaud.
"Not only does it keep your heat in, it also adds more weight to your bunker gear," he explains. "And it's just there until you take it off. "
One way that the Groves Fire Department ensures the safety of their crews, is that they take turns on scenes to do “rehab’ to provide them with rest and rehydration. It helps to make sure everyone is taken care of.
Once a firefighter finishes a bottle of oxygen they are usually sent to "rehab" while another firefighter takes over for them.
This usually involves drinking water and resting in front of a fan while on a major fire scene.
"Our normal practice when we get into some extreme heat. We have ice chests full of bottled water, we also have some cooling towels that we can dunk in that ice water and put on them," Billeaud says.
In some extreme cases they have put firefighters inside an ambulance to cool them down he said.
"You’ve got to keep a close eye on them," Billeaud said of his firefighters. "Everybody here is dedicated to their job, and they don't want to stop until they have to."
A challenge to being able to rotate crews out of a fire to be rehabbed is the lack of manpower Billeaud says.
The Groves Fire Department only has three or four paid firefighters who are augmented by volunteers. they also can count on help from the Nederland and Port Neches Fire Departments who each have two paid firefighters per shift in addition to volunteers.
On major fires there needs to be enough firefighters at the scene to switch out for each other so they can get out of all their gear to get rehabbed and refreshed and so they can cool off before going back to work Billeaud explained.
On major fires they also can get assistance from Port Arthur firefighters he said.
The dangers of heat exhaustion for firefighters can also extend to traffic wrecks, according to Billeaud.
“The concrete, the black asphalt, all that does is reflect the heat," he said. "They have to wear their bunker gear on those calls to to protect them until they get the patient secured and out of the vehicle."
Firefighters are able to take their gear off once everyone is out of the wrecked vehicle but if they spend a long time extricating someone it can be a challenge he said.
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
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