To be determined

IFSI continues to expand its research on reducing injuries in the fire fighting occupation. For each of the past 15 years, slips, trips, and falls (STFs) have been the number one or number two causes of injuries on the fireground. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has identified fire fighting as a high-risk occupation, and slips and falls as a leading cause of injury, yet no formalized research has been completed on the subject. Researchers from Mechanical Engineering, Kinesiology, and Psychology have teamed with IFSI to propose a research method to investigate reducing these common and costly injuries.

• To determine the effect of fire fighting equipment on balance and locomotion to assess how the use, selection, and placement of fire fighting equipment and tools affect various measures of standing balance and movement strategies, while walking on level ground or over obstacles, potentially placing a firefighter at risk for STFs.
• To identify sources of STF risk by gathering information (retrospectively and prospectively) on experience with STFs while on the fireground and during daily activities of a firefighter. These studies will examine incidences of STFs and whether they are associated with fire fighting equipment and/or fire fighting environment.
• To disseminate information to firefighters about equipment and environmental factors that put them at risk for STFs and to develop a lessons-learned information database for equipment manufacturers that will aid in the design of improved equipment to help prevent STFs.

• Professor Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler - Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois
• Professor Karl Rosengren - Kinesiology at the University of Illinois
• Gavin Horn - IFSI Research Program Director