Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Mark 3 (M3) water power pump is an integral piece of wildfire fighting equipment. However, it is provided to fire stations without a carrying harness. The currently-used carrying harness is very uncomfortable, especially when carrying the pumps considerable distance in a forest to reach a water source.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to advise the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources on the selection of a new M3 load carriage system.
PARTICIPANTS: Twenty Fire Rangers wore the three systems (Original, Prototype, and Modified) through a circuit of tasks representative of their working environment.
METHODS: Subjective and objective approaches were combined to assess and rank the M3 carriage systems. Subjective visual analogue scale ratings were obtained for ease of loading/unloading, comfort, system stability, and overall performance. Tri-axial accelerometers were mounted on each pump and at the sternum of each participant to determine relative pump-carrier accelerations.
RESULTS: Overall, the Prototype was ranked as the best system; it resulted in the lowest relative pump-carrier accelerations on 10 out of 15 objective measures, and also received a first place ranking on all subjective measures.
CONCLUSION: It was recommended that the Prototype be implemented as the M3 carriage system for fire suppression teams.