Fire departments can reduce stress on firefighters by signaling emergencies with alarms that gradually increase in intensity instead of blasting sudden, full-volume alerts, according to new research published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (JOEH).
The article, "Effect of Station-specific Alerting and Ramp-up Tones on Firefighters' Alarm Time Heart Rates," comes on the eve of the 35th Annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend, October 8-9, which honors firefighters who died in the line of duty during the previous year.