Out of Breath With Flames in The Air

Fire is blowing twenty feet over the roof of the building on Valentine Ave in the Bronx; this was my first fire as a New York City firefighter eight years ago in 2014. The street was blocked, so we had to drag hundreds of pounds of hose from our Engine to the fire. I was a fit twenty-four-year-old who boxed and did martial arts every day, yet the pudgy veteran firefighter (who smoked) next to me was breathing like we were strolling through the park, and I sounded like a dirty movie. Breathing is the mechanism that controls arousal. The experience of the firefighter next to me allowed him to acknowledge the inferno without losing awareness of this mechanism. Although there is no replacement for knowledge, understanding and practicing breathing can improve our ability to act under extreme duress. When most people think about the job of a firefighter, they typically think about brave individuals who run into burning buildings to save people's lives. While this is undoubtedly a critical part of their job, firefighters must be physically fit and able to handle stressful situations. One of the most important factors of doing this is breathing correctly, which will not just happen on its own, especially when carrying one hundred pounds of gear and equipment.

Breathing is something we all do automatically, and it is often something we take for granted. However, for firefighters, proper breathing can be the difference between life and death. Diaphragmatic breathing, also known as abdominal or belly breathing, is the most effective way to breathe. This type of breathing helps to calm the nervous system and prevent hyperventilation. It also allows air to reach the most alveoli-dense part of our lungs (the lower section). The alveoli are the tiny pink sacs in our lungs where the gas exchange of O2 and CO2 occurs. This exchange is essential for firefighters who wear heavy gear and work under challenging conditions. When combined with other tactical breath techniques, diaphragmatic breathing can help firefighters stay calm and focused in an emergency. As I learned as a rookie firefighter, the best time to practice this is not when staring at flames twenty feet in the sky; it's during drills and exercises that prepare us for such high-stress scenarios.