By Rachel Rice
Bangor Daily News (Maine)
Copyright 2006 Bangor Daily News
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Local fire department officials recently received a $75,687 grant that will help them to combat cardiovascular disease - the number one killer of firefighters in the U.S.
While fighting fires is dangerous, heart attacks are a bigger threat for firefighters according to national statistics, Rich Wark, deputy chief of the Presque Isle Fire Department, said Tuesday.
Wark said the funding, from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, will be used to develop a physical fitness program for local firefighters and to purchase physical fitness equipment for the department’s workout room. Firefighter Scott Cyr wrote the application for the grant.
“There’s been a huge initiative in the fire service to include fitness in the daily routine,” Wark said. “We need to be more fit.”
The fire department has a workout room that crews are encouraged to use about an hour a day when they are off duty; it includes treadmills, a stair climber, an exercise bike, a universal gym system and free weights. Wark said the fire department has been able to maintain the workout room through its wellness committee and help from the Maine Municipal Association’s Wellness Works program.
The new grant, though, will be a big boost, he said.
“We bought home gym equipment, which wears out really quickly,” Wark said. “What we’ve been doing is purchasing one treadmill or piece of cardiovascular equipment a year when they wear out.”
Most of the machines have about a one- or two-year life span at the fire department. Wark said the simple math is: home equipment typically gets used 20 minutes a day, maybe three times a week while the department machines are “taking a pounding” every day for an hour or more.
Officials plan to purchase commercial grade cardiovascular equipment, which they hope will have a five- to eight-year life span.
“This is equipment we’d probably never be able to gain on our own,” Wark said.
The grant also will pay for physical assessments for each employee and time with a personal trainer to set up exercise programs.
Wark said the physical fitness program will work better than gym memberships because it saves money and is more easily accessible because it’s right where firefighters work.
And how does the city benefit?
“Well, hopefully, they get firefighters that have better cardiovascular health,” Wark said.
The deputy chief said that while the department has had a few retirees who have had some cardiovascular problems linked to their firefighting duties, it has not experienced any related deaths, and officials want to keep it that way.
“We want to be preventative and not reactive,” Wark said.