A4 D SUNDAY • SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

NATION + WORLD SUN

DAY

STUDY SHOWS FIREFIGHTER HEALTH DECLINES

Reaction times also
seen falling as fire
season progresses
BY KEITH RIDLER
BOISE, Idaho
Randy Brooks’ son had a
request three years ago: What
could his dad do to make
wildland firefighting safer?
To Brooks, a professor at
the University of Idaho’s Col-
lege of Natural Resources
who deals with wildland fire-
fighting, it was more of a com-
mand.
His son, Bo Brooks, is a
wildland firefighter who a few
days earlier during that 2015
fire season fled a wall of
flames that killed three of his
fellow firefighters in eastern
Washington.
The result of the conversa-
tion was an online survey that
drew some 400 firefighters
who mostly identified mental
and physical fatigue as the
primary cause of injuries to
firefighters who are often
confronted with a changing,
dangerous environment.
But a self-selecting online
survey is not necessarily rep-
resentative of what’s happen-
ing in the field. So Randy
Brooks decided to apply
some science.
That led to an ongoing
health-monitoring study in-
volving wrist-worn motion
monitors and body composi-
tion measurements that last
year found health declines
and deteriorating reaction
times among firefighters as
the season progressed.
“A lot of them face peer
pressure to perform all the
time,” Brooks said. “Others
feel pressured to protect na-
tural resources and struc-
tures at all costs.”
Some 19,000 firefighters
are currently in the field fight-
ing nearly 40 large wildfires.
Fourteen firefighters have
died this year as wildfires
have scorched about 3,500
square miles and destroyed
some 3,000 homes.
The study last year found
firefighters lost muscle mass
but gained fat based on body
compositing testing before
and after the season.
The firefighters also wore
a wrist device called a Read-
iband from a company called
Fatigue Science. The device
keeps track of how many
hours of sleep a person gets.
Formulas developed by the
U.S. military then calculate
fatigue, based on a lack of
sleep. That’s used to predict
alertness and reaction times,
which get worse as fatigue
levels rise.
Firefighters in the field
can get as little as six hours of
sleep or less each night. The
devices found that not only
did reaction times falter as
firefighters remained longer
on a fire before getting a man-
datory break, Brooks said,
but firefighters also tended to
take longer to recover as the
season progressed. Some-
times, fatigue levels reached
a level that suggested reac-
tion times slowed down so
much it took firefighters
twice as long to react.
Brooks said his initial
thoughts are that wildland
firefighters might need better
nutrition to stay fit and men-
tally sharp. But last year’s
study had only nine firefight-
ers. Brooks this year has ex-
panded the study to 18 fire-
fighters — 16 men and two
women. They’re smokejump-
ers, meaning they parachute
from airplanes to fight fires.
Brooks said that next year
he hopes to have about 100
firefighters and include hot-
shot crews, a ground-based
wildland firefighter that can,
like smokejumpers, be de-
ployed on a national basis.
Smokejumpers in the
study often eat pre-made
meals. Brooks wants to find
out if maybe those meals are
behind some of the puzzling
results from last year’s study,
such as a loss in muscle mass.
Hotshots, meanwhile, can
return to a central spot where
they get prepared food sup-
plied by the U.S. Forest Serv-
ice. That agency has done ex-
tensive research on what it
takes to keep wildland fire-
fighters fueled, and contrac-
tors who supply the meals
must meet Forest Service nu-
tritional guidelines.
Forest Service health ex-
perts have even followed fire-
fighting crews to take blood
samples to check glucose lev-
els, which can indicate alert-
ness.
Joe Domitrovich, an exer-
cise physiologist with the
Forest Service’s National
Technology and Devel-
opment Program in Mis-
soula, Mont., said that experi-
ment led the agency to
change gears and recom-
mend firefighters snack dur-
ing their shifts to keep glu-
cose levels up.
“It’s critical for cognitive
function as well as physical
movement,” he said.
The agency declined to
comment on the University of
Idaho study.
Brooks said at this point
in his study there are more
questions than answers. For
example, one question is why
so many firefighter deaths
are due to falling branches or
trees. The deaths of three of
the 14 firefighters who died
last year were due to what are
called hazard trees. At least
one firefighter was killed by a
falling tree this year, and sev-
eral more have been injured.
“What I’m trying to figure
out is what is causing these
accidents,” Brooks said.
A fair number of wildland
firefighters also die of heart
attacks during the season.
Brooks said he wants to know
if there’s something about
the demanding seasonal job
that puts wildland firefight-
ers at greater risk of heart at-
tacks.
Ultimately, firefighters
themselves might be part of
the problem.
“There’s a little bit of a
hero culture,” said John
Freemuth, a Boise State Uni-
versity environmental policy
professor and public lands
expert. “There is a bonding
with everybody. It can create
a culture of where you kind of
collectively ignore things you
shouldn’t ignore.”
Ridler writes for The Associated Press.

‘TERRORIST MOTIVE’ IN STABBING ATTACK SAUDI-LED COALITION SAYS

ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMSTERDAM
A 19-year-old Afghan citizen
had a “terrorist motive” for alleg-
edly stabbing two Americans at
the main train station in Amster-
dam, city authorities in the Dutch
capital said Saturday.
Amsterdam police shot and
wounded the suspect after the
double stabbing Friday at Central
Station. The local government
said hours later that it appeared
the victims weren’t targeted for a
specific reason, but added that in-
vestigators were not excluding any
possibilities.
After the U.S. ambassador to
the Netherlands on Saturday
identified the people injured as
American tourists, Amsterdam
City Hall gave an update.
“Based on the suspect’s first
statements, he had a terrorist mo-
tive,” the city administration said
in a statement that did not elabo-
rate on what the statements were
or how they showed intent.
The wounded Americans were
AIRSTRIKE KILLED YEMENI KIDS
THE WASHINGTON POST
CAIRO
In a rare admission, a U.S.-
backed Saudi-led coalition ac-
cepted responsibility Saturday
for an airstrike last month on a
school bus in northern Yemen
that killed scores of people, in-
cluding at least 40 children.
The statement by the coalition
called the attack unjustified and
vowed to punish those involved.
The coalition said an internal
investigation had “concluded
ASSOCIATED PRESS that there were mistakes made in
Dutch police officers point their guns at a wounded 19-year-old abiding by the rules of engage-
man who was shot after stabbing two people in Amsterdam. ment.” The coalition expressed
“regret for these mistakes, and of-
recovering in a hospital from what Rutte confirmed on Twitter that fers its condolences and solidarity
police termed serious but not life- the investigation was focused Sat- with the families of the victims
threatening injuries. Their iden- urday on extremist ideology. and wishes for a speedy recovery
tities have not been released. The The suspect was scheduled to for the injured.”
suspect, who was identified only be arraigned during a closed-door The apology was as striking as
as Jawed S. in line with privacy hearing with an investigating it was unique in a conflict that has
rules in the Netherlands, also re- judge on Monday. Dutch officials now entered its fourth year, where
mains hospitalized. did not disclose the charges he the Saudi-led coalition is seeking
Dutch Prime Minister Mark could face. to oust Houthi rebels and restore
Yemen’s internationally recog-
nized government.
More than 17,000 civilians have
been killed or injured since the
war began, mostly by airstrikes,
deepening the world’s worst hu-
manitarian crisis where millions
are suffering from hunger, disease
and displacement.
The concession followed
mounting pressure by the United
States and its allies for the coali-
tion to fulfill promises to better
protect civilian lives. Last week,
the United Nations released a
scathing report accusing all
parties — but particularly citing
coalition airstrikes — of possibly
committing war crimes in Yemen.
The coalition rejected the report’s
findings.
Hours after the report’s re-
lease, Defense Secretary Jim Mat-
tis publicly declared that contin-
ued military support to its allies in
Yemen “is not unconditional” and
hinged on improved efforts to
avoid civilian casualties.

MCCAIN • Senator to be interred today at Naval Academy Cemetery

FROM A1
than that. He called us to be
better than that.”
Bush praised McCain for
his “courage and decency,” an
exemplar of the storied
American values of standing
up to bullying and oppres-
sion. “If we are ever tempted
to forget who we are, to grow
weary of our cause, John’s
voice will always come as a
whisper over our shoulder —
we are better than this,
America is better than this,”
Bush said.
If their better-than-this
eulogies were widely seen as
an implicit reproach of
Trump, Meghan McCain left
no mystery about who she
had in mind with a powerful,
emotional, sobbing remem-
brance of her father that also
sounded like a defiant cri de
coeur against the tycoon-
turned-president who once
belittled the senator’s
wartime service.
“We gather here to mourn
the passing of American
greatness — the real thing,
not cheap rhetoric from men
who will never come near the
sacrifice he gave so willingly,
nor the opportunistic appro-
priation of those who lived
lives of comfort and privilege
while he suffered and
served,” she said.
Mocking Trump’s favorite
slogan, she later declared:
“The America of John Mc-
Cain has no need to be made
great again because America
was always great.” The audi-
ence then burst out in ap-
plause, something that rarely
happens during the tradi-
tionally solemn funerals held
at the cathedral.
Political figures from both
parties made their way to the
house of worship on a dreary,
overcast and humid morn-
ing. They came to bid farewell
to John Sidney McCain III,
son and grandson of admi-
rals, naval aviator, tortured
prisoner, congressman, six-
term senator, two-time presi-
dential candidate, patriot,
maverick, reformer, warrior,
curmudgeon, father, hus-
band and finally, in death,
American icon.
They also came to mourn
an ideal that he represented
and a town that he once
dominated with verve and
humor and memorable
flashes of temper. It was al-
most as if it were a meeting of
Washington’s political under-
George W. Bush (center) speaks to Dick Cheney as he walks out with (from left) Laura Bush, Barack Obama,
Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton after Sen. John McCain’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral.
ground, if the underground
met in a grand cathedral with
10,650 organ pipes.
Standing in for Trump at
the cathedral were his
daughter Ivanka Trump and
son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as
well as his Chief of Staff John
Kelly and national security
adviser John Bolton, seated
not far away from former
President Bill Clinton and
former Secretary of State Hil-
lary Clinton. Rudy Giuliani,
the president’s lawyer and a
longtime political ally of Mc-
Cain’s, also attended.
McCain, who died last
weekend at 81, directed his
own farewell with the same
contrarian spirit that fla-
vored his political career, and
it came off just as he would
have wanted. The 2 1⁄2-hour
ceremony blended the
majesty of the officially desig-
nated national house of
prayer, the discipline of his
cherished Naval Academy
and the unabashed, unapolo-
getic patriotism of a Fourth
of July fireworks display.
As he battled brain can-
cer, McCain told his advisers
months ago that he wanted
Bush and Obama to speak at
his funeral, then called each
of them to make the request.
The point was to emphasize
the common values that they
shared despite their differ-
ences.
Obama recalled that dur-
ing their 2008 contest, Mc-
Cain corrected a supporter
who denounced Obama as an
Arab. “I was grateful, but I
wasn’t surprised,” Obama
said. “I never saw John treat
anyone differently because of
their race, or religion, or gen-
der.”
That did not mean they
agreed all the time, he noted.
“It’s no secret, it’s been men-
tioned, that he had a temper,”
Obama said, “and when it
flared up, it was a force of na-
ture, a wonder to behold —
his jaw grinding, his face red-
dening, his eyes boring a hole
right through you. Not that I
ever experienced this first-
hand, mind you.”
But he said that every so
often while he was president,
McCain would come to the
White House to “just sit and
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS AP
talk” about their disagree-
ments. “We never doubted
the other man’s sincerity or
the other man’s patriotism,
or that when all was said and
done, we were on the same
team,” Obama said. “We ne-
ver doubted we were on the
same team.”
Bush, who refused to vote
for Trump in 2016, was more
oblique in his talk than
Obama, but his description
of his onetime rival still
struck many in the audience
as a contrast to the current
president.
“Perhaps above all, John
detested the abuse of power,”
Bush said. “He could not
abide bigots and swaggering
despots. There was some-
thing deep inside him that
made him stand up for the lit-
tle guy — to speak for forgot-
ten people in forgotten
places.”
Bush defeated McCain for
the Republican presidential
nomination in 2000 after an
acrid primary campaign, and
the two clashed regularly
over the next eight years, per-
haps most notably over the
issue of torture. McCain
forced Bush to accept legisla-
tion intended to ban the use
of waterboarding and other
harsh interrogation meth-
ods.
But when the war in Iraq
went badly and Bush was
abandoned by virtually ev-
eryone, McCain stuck with
him and supported a surge of
troops and strategy shift that
helped turn the war around.
Bush acknowledged their
tense history but said it eased
after he left office. “In recent
years, we sometimes talked
of that intense period like
football players remember-
ing a big game,” he said. “In
the process, rivalry melted
away. In the end, I got to enjoy
one of life’s great gifts: the
friendship of John McCain.
And I will miss him.”
McCain’s flag-draped cof-
fin was taken by motorcade
Saturday morning from Cap-
itol Hill to the cathedral,
stopping along the way at the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial,
where Cindy McCain laid a
wreath in honor of her hus-
band, whose 5 1⁄2 years of cap-
tivity during that war vaulted
him to national prominence.
At the cathedral, the cof-
fin was brought into the vast
chamber and a bourdon bell
tolled. The U.S. Naval Acade-
my Glee Club and Navy Band
Brass Ensemble performed
music that included the Navy
Hymn, “My Country, ’Tis of
Thee,” “Amazing Grace” and
“America the Beautiful.”
Cindy McCain sat bereft
but composed throughout
before finally weeping and
leaning on her son Jack’s
shoulder during during
Renée Fleming’s rendition of
“Danny Boy.” Roberta Mc-
Cain, the senator’s 106-year-
old mother, was also on hand,
quietly grieving.
At John McCain’s request,
former Sen. Joseph Lieber-
man, an independent De-
mocrat from Connecticut,
and former Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger also
spoke. McCain said earlier
this year that he wished he
had picked Lieberman as his
running mate in 2008 instead
of Sarah Palin, who was not
invited to Saturday’s service.
The senator’s son Jimmy
McCain, wearing his military
uniform, read “Requiem,” by
Robert Louis Stevenson, the
same verses the senator used
to end his most recent book.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-
S.C.; former Sen. Kelly Ay-
otte, R-N.H.; and Sidney Mc-
Cain, another daughter, all
read from Scripture.
The honorary pallbearers
were a who’s who of the sena-
tor’s life and across-the-aisle
friendships, including former
Vice President Joe Biden, for-
mer Mayor Michael
Bloomberg of New York, ac-
tor Warren Beatty and a bevy
of current and former sena-
tors, advisers, fundraisers
and friends. A prominent
Russian dissident, Vladimir
Kara-Murza, was also in-
cluded, underscoring the
senator’s long-standing op-
position to the authoritarian
government of President
Vladimir Putin.
The senator’s remains will
be interred today at the U.S.
Naval Academy Cemetery,
next to his lifelong friend and
1958 academy classmate,
Adm. Charles R. Lawson.
“Here is the sailor,”
Stevenson wrote, “home
from the sea.”
Baker writes for The New York Times.