Dana Osborne ran 45 miles in firefighting gear last month. She wants her colleagues to be able to do the same.
Originally written and published by Sarah Teague for the Christian County Headliner on April 3, 2018. Click here to be directed to the original posting.
“Everyday, we really have to put our hearts into what we do.”
So said Dana Osborne. She’s a firefighter for Nixa Fire Protection District. On March 16, she ran 45 miles in her firefighting gear for Cape Girardeau’s Howard Aslinger Endurance Run.
The run is sponsored by the Howard Aslinger Foundation, an organization that encourages individuals with disabilities to continue their education. The run gives participants 24 hours to run as much as they’d like.
“I had (on) full turnout gear, my bunker pants, my coat — which was zipped up and the liner left in — my air pack and my helmet for the entire race,” Dana said. “With my pockets empty and without my rescue rope or other tools, it was just over 50 pounds of gear.”
This is the second year Dana has run in honor of her fellow firefighters — last year she ran 42 miles with her gear on. While the race doesn’t require participants to run in this gear, she says it’s for a good cause.
PHOTO: Dana Osborne at Nixa Fire Protection District Station 2 in Nixa, Missouri in March 2018. Sarah Teague/Headliner News
“Once I got into the fire service, I researched,” Dana said. “I learned that the number one cause of line of duty deaths is sudden cardiac arrest or overexertion. I think that cardio is largely overlooked by us in the fire service.”
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s “Firefighter Fatalities in the United States in 2016” report, 89 American firefighters died in 2016. For 43 of those individuals, the cause of death was listed as stress or overexertion. That’s 48 percent.
After learning this, Dana knew something had to change.
“We know we have to be strong, we know we have to be able to drag our brothers out of a burning building if we need to and we know that we need to carry heavy tools,” Dana said. “But I think what we underestimate is our cardiovascular health. So my mission (is) just to motivate and inspire other firefighters … law enforcement and EMS to get out there and take care of your heart.”
That mission led Osborne to partner with 5-5-5 Fitness, a New Jersey nonprofit run by individuals with backgrounds in emergency services. The group encourages firefighters, EMS and law enforcement to workout with a specific focus on heart health, by streaming free workouts on their social media and phone app.
The name, 5-5-5 Fitness, honors firefighters that have died in the line of duty, Director Robert “Pip” Piparo said. Before modern technology was used in the fire service, emergency workers employed bells to alert firefighters that they needed to respond to a call.
“Usually the number 5 was synonymous for a (fire) call being over,” Piparo said. “Now in the fire service, departments have adopted those fives (to symbolise those) that have lost their lives in the line of duty.”
Piparo said 5-5-5 Fitness uploads a video every time an American firefighter passes away. In the videos, they ring a bell five times for three series — 5-5-5.
“Sadly in the last week and a half we’ve had to upload those videos 9 times,” Piparo said. “It’s been a rough week in the fire service.”
5-5-5 Fitness doesn’t own a gym, but raises funds to purchase workout equipment for fire stations and others in emergency services across the country.
Piparo said the fitness group shares Dana’s story across their social media platforms, and Dana has set up a fundraising page for their “Strength is Our Foundation” grant. The grant, launched by 5-5-5 Fitness five years ago, allows emergency service teams across the country to apply for funds to buy workout equipment.
“I think (Osborne is) amazing,” Piparo said. “The way she does it with as busy as she is — she inspires me to keep going further with 5-5-5, because I know there are people like her out there that live (out) our mission and want to be better providers. We’re all there for each other in emergency services.”
Osborne is now a full-time firefighter — she just completed her six-month probationary period on March 20. She described this period of intense training all aspiring firefighters for the district must endure.
“My crew pushed me harder to be better every single day and they still do,” Dana said. “(The training) ranges from learning department history, (and) values … to physical training — we have to do PT every shift to make sure we’re getting stronger.”
Dana said the history she learned prevents mistakes made in fire service history from happening again. But not all of her training did she expect.
“There would be days where you’re sitting in the office working on a report or reading some history … and one of your training officers — or really any firefighter — could walk by and say, ‘Go,’” she recalled. “You stop what you’re doing and run out to the bay (and) get your gear on in less than two minutes. We do these gear drills pretty regularly.”
Osborne said this probationary period was especially difficult to complete while raising a family of three boys, but her sons motivated her to continue. Logan (10), Lawson (eight) and Landyn (six), all aspire to work in emergency services, she said.
PHOTO: Dana Osborne’s sons pinning on her badge the night she passed the six-month probationary period for the Nixa Fire Protection District’s training.
“I think I’m raising little first responders, “ Dana said. “Logan wants to be a doctor, Lawson wants to be a police officer or go into the military and Landyn wants to be a firefighter.”
Though her crew pushed her through the probationary period and intense training, Dana talked about crew dynamic as being of the utmost importance — the firefighters are each other’s “keepers,” she said.
Lieutenant Josh Donham was Dana’s main training officer and said Dana did well through the training. Though all there hold high standards for each other, Dana especially encourages those at Station 2 to be heart healthy.
Donham said the department requires workouts that keep heartrate up for a while — cardio with powerlifting movements, and sometimes working out in firefighting gear to imitate circumstances they’ll encounter when responding to calls.
“As a department we have a mandatory policy where, each shift that we’re here, we have one hour we use that is dedicated for workout time, and we’ve identified that as one of our priorities,” Donham said. “A lot of what is killing firefighters nationwide is obesity (and inactivity) causing cardiac problems, so we’ve tried to address that and be pretty aggressive towards making sure we’re prepared.”
Osborne is in no danger of being unprepared. She’s currently training to run 100 miles in 36 hours — in gear, of course — in October 2018. Follow her journey on her Instagram page: @HalligansandHandcuffs.
