Members of South Australia's Country Fire Service volunteer brigades are contributing their valuable time and energy to a national research project aimed at keeping them safe on the fire-ground.

This project titled Awake, smoky and hot: Workplace stressors when fighting bushfires is funded by the Bushfire CRC (Co-operative Research Centre) and conducted by researchers at CQUniversity's Appleton Institute in Adelaide in conjunction with Deakin University and the CSIRO. 

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"We are interested in how environmental stressors such as heat, smoke and lack of sleep affect performance and safety when on the fire-ground," says one of the researchers, Dr Brad Smith.

Researchers are keen to get in touch with CFS volunteers who can spend four days and nights at the CFS Training College in Brukunga, undertaking simulated fire-fighting tasks while the project team examines physical, cognitive and sleep measures.  

Prospective participants should contact  sally.ferguson@cqu.edu.au or 0407 799 204.