By FireRescue1 Staff
EMMITSBURG, Md. — The Science to the Station firefighter health and wellness conference will be co-located with the U.S. Fire Administrator’s Summit on Fire Prevention and Control at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland. The conference runs Oct. 5-6, with a full-day meeting of FEMA researchers on Oct. 7, followed by the USFA Summit on Oct. 8.
In partnership with the First Responder Center for Excellence (FRCE), the Science to the Station conference (aka “Nerdstock”) will feature more than 25 fire service health and wellness experts covering a variety of topics — health messaging, concussions, reproductive health, PPE, lithium ion batteries and heat stress.
“When we started Science to the Station, we knew there was a need to better disseminate health and wellness information to the fire service,” says Kepra Jack, owner of HeartFit for Duty and vice president and founding member of Science to the Station, a group that aims to be the go-to resource where science informs practice and practice informs science for public safety. “We just didn’t know if the fire service understood that need. But our membership numbers, our conference attendance and now this co-location with the Summit shows that the fire service does get it. There’s a real hunger out there for evidence-driven information on how to stay healthy in this job.”
Sara Jahnke, Science to the Station founder and president, underscored that this is an exciting and crucial moment in fire service history: “Health and wellness research and outcomes matter. This conference will be bigger and better than our maiden voyage last year. We couldn’t be more grateful to the USFA and FRCE for giving Science to the Station such a huge gust of wind in our sails. We will build on this momentum to keep bringing the best scientific information to firefighters using regional and national platforms.”
Jahnke added: “This is a tremendous opportunity to learn about how research is changing firefighter wellness, and do it at such a beautiful and historic setting, as well as attend the Summit, one of the most important fire service events of the year.”
Registration is free, but space is limited. Housing is included with the purchase of a Meal Ticket at the National Emergency Training Center (NETC).