Thanks to a Health and Wellness Program, pushed by the union and implemented in the county in 2006, firefighters today are more fit than ever, he said.

Since the program began, there has been a 29 percent reduction in firefighter sprains and strains, said Donna Goins, safety and insurance manager for the county's Risk Management Office. The decrease in injuries led to a $3.5 million reduction in costs to the county for on-the-job injuries within the fire department, she said.

"I would credit the Health and Wellness Program for this," Goins said.

In 2006, Division Chief Allen Williams applied for a wellness initiative through a federal grant program. The program assisted departments in purchasing needed equipment, funding fitness training and programs, and hiring an exercise kinesiologist.

The county Fire Department received $800,000, with the county approving a 20 percent match in July 2006. The grant also required every member of the department to have a thorough medical exam.

The goal was to improve overall health and fitness of firefighters, minimize and reduce injuries and illness, provide a work-hardening program to enable a timely return to duty for injured employees, and reduce the overall costs related to on-the-job illness and injury, said Division Chief Michael Cox, a county Fire Department spokesman.

He said the county especially wanted to reduce heart attacks, the leading cause of death for firefighters. Since 1910, 18 county firefighters have died on the job, with 10 of those deaths due to heart attacks, Cox said.

Goins said making firefighters healthier today would lead to fewer heart conditions down the road. She said it would be about 10 years before the county could assess the reduction of heart conditions in relation to the wellness program.

But she can say the program is significantly reducing the number of sprains and strains firefighters suffer on the job each year.

Before the program began, firefighters reported barely more than 100 sprains and strains each year, Goins said. In 2007, the department reported 12 fewer. In 2008, there were 16 fewer reports of injury. Last year the number of reports dropped by three.

"Sprains and strains are what we would have expected to go down, and they are" going down, she said.

The county paid about $2 million per year for firefighter injuries before the implementation of the program. In the past three years, the county has paid less than $1 million annually.

Oldershaw said injured firefighters now see the department's own fitness coordinator, Tracy Lansaw, instead of an outside physical therapist. This in turn, saves money, he said.

Lansaw was made the department's fitness coordinator after the grant was received. The grant expired in 2008, but she was able to keep her job after County Executive John R. Leopold switched the position from a grant position to a civilian employee position within the county Fire Department.

Oldershaw said he is excited about the savings and the promotion of a healthier lifestyle among the county's firefighters.

"While it might have cost a little bit to administer the program, in the long run it saved the county money," he said. "And we're making healthier firefighters every day."

He said wellness for firefighters is his first priority.

"We know that this job inherently is risky - and it also leads to a shortened life span," he said. "The average (life span) for a firefighter is 13 to 14 years post-retirement. The body slows down and all those breakdowns catch up with them."

Firefighters must be prepared to go from relaxing at the firehouse to pulling a victim from a burning building in a matter of minutes, he said. After a while, the mix of rest and adrenaline takes its toll, he said.

"Putting your heart in that situation from a resting state to an adrenal hyper state, it does (cause) a lot of wear and tear," he said. "Anything we can do to extend their life span, we need to do. This is a very physically demanding job and our members and firefighters should be physically fit."

There are currently 32 county fire stations that have exercise equipment available to firefighters 24 hours a day, Cox said.

"Most have state-of-the-art, updated equipment like cardiovascular machines, free weights - and all were provided by that grant money," he said.