Fireman

FIREMAN, "a person who loads fuel into the boiler furnace, cleans the furnace, blows down the boiler, supervises the boiler's fittings and trimmings, oversees the water supply to the boiler, and generally observes the boiler" (definition from the III All-Union Thermal Engineering Congress in November 1926). According to approximate data, there are at least 100,000 F. working on various types of boilers in the USSR. Only persons specially trained and who have passed appropriate examinations may be employed as firemen, according to a resolution of the STO (Council of Labor and Defense) dated June 13, 1923. From the standpoint of professional hygiene, the profession of F. has not yet been sufficiently studied, and more or less complete data are available only about the working conditions of marine and locomotive firemen. The basic professional hazards of F.'s labor are as follows: work in an enclosed space with significant dust content and harmful gases (CO, CO₂, SO₂, H₂S, etc.), with high and uneven temperature, with significant radiant heat emission, in a forced standing position, with frequent bending of the torso, with significant strain on all muscles, vision, and attention. The work of F. is also associated with direct danger of burns and injuries. F. is also always threatened with the danger of explosion. In addition to observing the pressure gauge, water glasses, blowdown cocks, injector, syphon, and other devices, which mainly requires strain on attention and vision, the main muscular work of F. consists of a series of elementary operations, usually repeated in a specific order, namely: 1) opening the furnace doors every 8-10 minutes to observe the combustion; 2) shoveling fuel (usually every 10-12 minutes) with a shovel weighing about 3 kg, with usually 5-8 shovels thrown per turn, and an average of 5-6 kg of coal per shovel; 3) cutting the burning coal with a long poker weighing 20-25 kg; 4) raking (even distribution of burning coal with a shovel throughout the furnace); 5) cleaning the furnace and ash pits (usually once per shift) with a special long poker weighing up to 20 kg for 20-25 minutes; 6) quenching the ejected slag with water and removing the cooled ash by various means (usually once per shift for 20-30 minutes, with the weight of ash removed usually being about 15% of the weight of coal burned); 7) shoveling or transferring coal from a coal pile, pit, tender, or other storage place directly to the boiler furnace (usually done in 2-3 operations during a shift). The working conditions of F. in various industrial and transportation enterprises differ sharply from each other and primarily depend on the size and number of boilers serviced (in small stationary installations, 1 F. services one boiler, while in large boiler rooms at power stations, usually 2 F. work on a large boiler, on a locomotive, one large boiler is serviced by 1 F., and on ships, usually 1 F. services two boilers) and on the fuel on which the given boiler operates. The work of F. is most difficult with solid fuel (wood, coal, peat) when it is loaded manually, and easiest with oil heating, when the muscular work of F. almost completely disappears and his labor is reduced almost exclusively to observing the condition of steam in the boiler and setting the necessary draft conditions in the furnace, i.e., actions mainly requiring strain on attention and vision. The working conditions for marine F. with solid fuel are especially difficult, as in addition to heavy muscular work, they have to work in the hold part of the vessel, which is poorly accessible to outside air, and furthermore, the workrooms on ships are significantly smaller than in stationary boiler rooms, and as a result, meteorological conditions are significantly worsened. Approximate (underestimated) calculations of energy expenditure for locomotive F. (Smirnov) on a switching locomotive with a consumption of about 13 tons of coal give a total energy expenditure for a 12-hour shift of 3,850 kg/m, and on a passenger locomotive with a coal consumption of 40 tons - 11,970 kg/m. On Soviet sea steamers, according to underestimated calculations by Uglow, the energy expenditure for 1 F. in a 6-hour working day with a daily coal consumption of 18 tons is 6,930 kg/m; calculations by German authors determine the energy expenditure of marine F. during 1 hour as 2,600 kg/m (A. Kurrer) and even 6,600 kg/m (P. Schmidt). The work of F. takes place under heavy meteorological conditions: due to the large amount of heat given off by extensive boiler surfaces and released from periodically opened furnaces, the temperature in the F.'s work area usually stays between 30-50° (with relative air humidity of 60-65%), naturally decreasing with distance from the furnace. At the Central Electric Station in Kyiv, in the fire room with a total volume of 9,100 m³ with 6 operating boilers, the temperature in summer was 39° (with an outside air temperature of 22°), at a distance of 1 m from the furnace it was 42°, with open furnaces it rose to 63°, during fuel loading - to 65°, during coal cutting and raking - even to 82°, since during the latter operation the furnaces are opened for a longer time. Temperature measurements in a marine steamer's fire room give the following figures: near the furnaces - 56°, at a distance of 0.5 m from the furnace - 49.6°, at 1.5 m from the furnace - 44.8°, and at 2.5 m from the furnace - 38.3°, and even directly under the fan supplying fresh air at a speed of 6 m per second, the temperature is 29.7°. Catathermetric observations in different locations also prove significant difficulties for heat dissipation by the worker's body: Angus in October 1922 found in the fire room of an American ship in the Atlantic Ocean a temperature of 27°, with the dry catatherm readings ranging from 4.3 to 3.9 (instead of the normal 6), and the wet catatherm readings ranging from 16.3 to 17.2 (instead of the normal 16). According to observations by Uglow on a marine steamer in the Baltic Sea with a temperature in the fire room under the fan of 32°, "H" was 4.5, and "H" was 14.3. According to observations by Schwarz (L. Schwarz) in the fire room of a German steamer, the temperature was 29.5° (with an outside air temperature of 16.5°), and the relative air humidity was 64%, with the dry catatherm showing 2.7. The high temperature of the fire room, combined with heavy muscular work, leads to a "physiological" increase in the F.'s body temperature and accelerated pulse: in 9 F. at the Central Kyiv electric station, the temperature immediately after finishing work was on average 37.6°, and the pulse averaged from 90 to 110 beats; when examining F. on Russian sea steamers, Uglow and Ramm found in all F. immediately after finishing work an increase in respiration from 2 to 10 breaths per minute, an increase in body temperature from 0.1° to 1.0°, and an increase in pulse from 6 to 38 beats per minute, with the greatest increases occurring in young F. with 1-2 years of experience, while older F. with many years of experience showed smaller fluctuations. The difficult working conditions of F. affect the loss of body weight: in 4-hour watches on marine F., it averages 800 g, and sometimes reaches 2 kg despite the fact that F. drinks an average of 1.5 liters of water during the watch. This weight loss is mainly due to profuse sweating during work and is usually restored during the 12-hour rest. The air in boiler rooms normally contains 30-40 mg of dust per 1 m³, and during coal shoveling into the fire room, the dust content reaches 100-150 mg or more depending on the grade of coal used. Even more dust, moreover very fine and irritating, collects in the fire room during boiler blowing and chimney cleaning. Coal dust penetrates deeply into the pores of the skin and the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract and is a cause of constant skin irritation and respiratory diseases. Of the gases, in addition to CO₂, the amount of which in boiler rooms reaches 5-6 mg per 1 liter of air, CO is constantly present in the fire room, ranging from barely noticeable traces to 0.4-0.6 mg per 1 liter, i.e., in amounts many times exceeding toxic doses; especially much CO is observed in engine rooms of ships operating on internal combustion engines, as when the diesel wears out, many gases leak (Zabelin found 1.19 mg CO per 1 liter of air in the engine rooms of Volga steamers). The amount of SO₂ and H₂S in the air of boiler rooms depends on the grade of coal used and its sulfur content (while Donets anthracite and Cardiff coal contain 3% to 5% sulfur, Podmoskovny coal contains up to 12%); but with any grade of coal, the amount of SO₂ sharply increases during furnace cleaning (reaching 60-70 mg per 1 liter), and the amount of H₂S sharply increases during quenching of ejected coal with water. Both of these circumstances make the work of cleaning furnaces especially difficult, all the more so that the fireman performs it with increased and accelerated respiration and is forced to remain for 20-25 minutes in an atmosphere of these irritating and harmful gases.

When heating boilers with petroleum products, fairly large amounts of heavy and light hydrocarbons of the paraffin, and sometimes aromatic, series enter the air of boiler rooms. As a result of the difficult working conditions, firemen show increased morbidity: not to mention heat strokes, which occur almost exclusively in marine firemen, all firemen are characterized by increased incidence of colds and rheumatic diseases, catarrhs of the respiratory tract, pneumoconioses, and skin diseases. In addition, firemen suffer from professional poisoning by CO, SO₂, H₂S. Since the main occupational hazard for firemen is heavy muscular work, the most radical measure to combat this occupational hazard is the transition to oil heating instead of solid fuel. In cases where the transition to oil heating is impossible, various measures must be applied to mechanize the loading of fuel (automatic pouring of coal from bunkers, mechanical feeding of sawdust and solid fuel), cleaning of furnaces (shaking grates, automatic cleaning of ash pits), and blowing out of boilers. To combat high temperatures, maximum insulation of boilers and steam pipes with asbestos and other materials is necessary, and in addition, supply ventilation where possible, combined with air curtains and showers. Regardless of these specific measures, boiler rooms themselves must be constructed in compliance with sanitary-technical standards, as contained in the Mandatory Resolution of the People's Commissariat of Labor of the USSR of November 14, 1923, with special attention to be paid to the volume of the boiler room, lighting, an antechamber to protect against cold air, ventilation in terms of supplying a sufficient amount of fresh air and removing smoke and other gases, and the installation of showers or baths for firemen to wash after their shift. Only persons who have passed a preliminary medical examination in accordance with the resolution of the People's Commissariats of Labor and Health of the RSFSR of February 2, 1925, and the list of diseases published by them that prevent appointment to the position of fireman may be admitted to work as firemen. For marine and locomotive firemen, the requirements for their health are contained in the rules for medical examination of transport workers. According to current legislation, all firemen working with solid fuel who load manually receive an additional 2-week vacation, and firemen working with Moscow region coal receive this vacation regardless of the method of loading; locomotive firemen also enjoy an additional 2-week vacation regardless of the method of loading, while marine firemen receive additional vacation only on ships that sail year-round. The working day is reduced to 6 hours only for marine firemen working with solid fuel while the vessel is in motion.