By FireRescue1 Staff

As a social experiment, FireRescue1 offered their Facebook fans a magic wand to change one thing about their PPE.  They received some innovative answers, some goofy ones and even a few from folks who don’t think anyone with a wand should be in the fire service. Which suggestion do you agree with most?

• “SCBA mask you can wear with a short beard.” – Mike Cantu
• “More padding in the knees!” – Jade Robinson
• “Make it light as a feather!” – Rick Sisson
• “Ergonomic design geared toward spinal movement.” – Renee Foster
• “Grab loops on the bottom of pants for better grip during S&R, and light-up boots to help keep track of each other during S&R.” – Paul Dudley
• “Thinner structural firefighting gloves that would withstand the same (or higher) temperatures but offer improved dexterity. These gloves would also have the ability to dry out in an instant.” – Allen John Cameron
• “I’d make it like Iron Man’s suit except with cool pinstripes, and it would be able to do hose testing and plug checking by itself.” – Fernando Danger Videgaray
• “Built-in Kevlar vests.” – Scott Morse
• “Make it affordable for small departments like ours. That way we can get nice gear, not gear that is old and worn-out.” – Jason Clatt
• “Install a TIC inside the mask.” – Logan Thrash
• “Here’s an idea for the SCBA: Air purifier. Takes in the smoke, filters it, cleans it and produces air for us to use. Lightweight and powered by us breathing.” – Will Hilliard
• “Put a temperature failure sensor in bunker gear that would vibrate at the wrist on the coat or the waistline on the pants when you reach temperatures reaching failure.” – John D. Findlay Jr
• “It would fit my small frame better.” – Shawna Hardman
• “Lighter, safer and more dexterity.” – Derek Ferguson
• “Internal air conditioning.” – Bob Chilton

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By Rick Markley, FR1 Editor
For FireRescue1.com

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By Lisa Frank
for NFPA’s Fire Service Today

What does it mean to be an innovative organization? To be an innovator, do you need to have a certain product or follow a certain way of doing things? How much does innovation truly matter? And how do you know if you are doing it right?

As I walked the exhibit floor at the FDIC conference in Indy last month, these questions kept going through my head.

(more…)

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A Commentary on THL and the Indianapolis (“Indy”) Field Trial
by W. L. Gore and Associates, Inc.

Often it is asked, ‘What is the minimum difference in THL that is perceivable by (or meaningful for) a firefighter during use?’ When answering this question, the first thing that needs to be understood is that, in general, the higher the THL the better the potential for heat stress reduction – even when considering the existing and valid complications such as air gaps, additional material layers, etc., that come into play with garments as compared to just composites.

The ability to answer the question precisely is limited by the variation in both materials and the THL measurement, and also by the variation in people and the measurement of people’s responses. These four sources of variability hinder the ability to measure and predict what the minimum perceivable THL difference is due to the limited sensitivity of the measurement devices involved in making those types of determinations (including skin temperature measurement devices, core temperature measurement devices, etc.).

Lab measurements and lab predictions always need to be correlated to actual field experience in order to be trustworthy. But in conjunction with the limited sensitivity of the measurement devices, science is also constrained (or at least affected) by the test design and test protocols typically used in physiological trials. Making sense of each of these limitations and/or constraints is where statistics come into play. Applying good statistical evaluation to all of the design, sensitivity and data collection factors allows a researcher to determine what is the strongest (most confident) statement that can be concluded from the study conducted and data collected, and also, applied to a general population.

(more…)

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By Arek Sarkissian II
for The Evansville Courier Press

VANDERBURGH COUNTY — The only device Vanderburgh County firefighters have had to empty an anhydrous ammonia tank at a methamphetamine lab scene was a drum full of water and plenty of experience from for error and injury.

Now, thanks to Perry Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jerry Bulger, there is the Methbuster.

The bright red device is a sealed chamber that can hold a vessel of anhydrous. The chamber is partially filled with water using a fire hose and a firefighter can manipulate the anhydrous using gloves attached through the wall of to the chamber while watching through a glass window.

(more…)

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Did you know that  the 2012 edition of NFPA 1971 has incorporated a stored energy test?  This test evaluates the stored and transmitted heat energy in a turnout composite underneath a reinforcement material.  Is your department equipped to meet the standard?

William J. Gorak,  a product development engineer with W. L. Gore & Associates discusses the newly added stored energy test in a recent article for Fire Engineering Magazine.

After many years of research and discussion, a new minimum performance requirement to help prevent stored energy burns will be added to NFPA 1971, Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, 2012 edition. Ensemble manufacturers will be required to perform stored thermal energy (STE) testing to ensure that turnout gear complies with the new performance criteria. What is stored energy, and how does it relate to the thermal protection performance (TPP) requirement already in NFPA 1971?

The NFPA 1971 Technical Committee on Structural and Proximity Fire Fighting Protective Clothing and Equipment has focused on firefighter burns caused by heat buildup under outer shell attachments. One study¹ indicated that many reported burns occurred on arms and shoulders, with many of them under nonporous materials attached to the outer shell such as trim, patches, logos, lettering, and so on. The burns typically occurred after minutes of thermal exposure without visible damage to the gear. Therefore, the 2012 edition of the NFPA 1971 standard specifically addresses burns under attachments located only on outer shell sleeves.

To read the full article, click here.

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Dramatically reduces tactical extrication time

The LION Personal Issue Tactical Rescue Stretcher increases officer safety by slashing the amount of time required to extricate a casualty.

The stretcher is constructed from military grade nylon mesh and webbing and has two restraint straps. It’s strength has been tested to 1,960 lbs.

It weighs just 12 ozs. and stows in a 4″ x 6″ bag. The bag easily attaches to your ballistic vest or belt, so the tools for emergency rescue are immediately at hand.

Alternative stretchers are bulky and cumbersome. They take too long to deploy, potentially creating more casualties.

(more…)

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By Alan M. Petrillo
for Fire Apparatus Magazine

When firefighters are using their personal protective equipment (PPE) on the fireground, the gear should be responsive and comfortable—not tight, restricting, or difficult to wear. Accordingly, ergonomics and a more tailored fit are buzzwords being used by PPE manufacturers that have spent a great deal of time debriefing firefighters on their use of gear and have crafted PPE styles that allow generous mobility in areas that flex and bend the most—knees, elbows, back, and seat.

Proactive Development

Karen Lehtonen, director of products for Lion, says that because PPE isn’t developed in a vacuum, Lion went out into the field and interviewed firefighters about how their gear fit and where it worked against them while performing tasks. “We also looked at other areas where clothing is trying to do the same thing—protect the wearer yet not be restrictive,” she says. “The military and athletics are such areas, and we were able to take some ideas from them on styling, patterning, and material combinations that improve movement and help reduce stress on the firefighter, because the gear is not fighting him while he’s wearing it.”

Hayley Fudge, Lion’s director of marketing, says the bending areas of a person’s body are where the stress points are located. “We have to think about how a firefighter is moving; what the garment is being asked to do; and where it might need more flex, like in the elbows and the knees,” she says.

As a result, Lion’s Janesville V-Force gear incorporates a flexible elbow area that allows the arm to bend freely and comfortably while still keeping the wrists protected. Fudge says it’s designed similarly to the bellows underarm construction, where a football-shaped insert is set behind the elbow that expands to eliminate tugging at the sleeve or shoulder when a firefighter flexes his arm.

Accommodating Reach

Lehtonen points out the most troublesome areas in bunker gear are those that are involved in reaching forward and upward and stepping up or down. Lion’s bunker pants have a gusset that the knee can fall into when a firefighter is climbing, crawling, bending, or kneeling. Lion also uses its Lite-N-Dri cushioning to give supplemental thermal insulation at the knee and in other high-compression areas such as shoulders, elbows, and the yoke. In addition, Lion eliminated crotch seams in its bunker pants to reduce tension on the gear and provide added wearing comfort.

Lion manages moisture in its gear though its Isodri technology, a combination of materials that blocks outside sourced water, wicks perspiration off the body, and resists storing water inside the protective envelope. Lehtonen points out that Lion shortly will offer a new collar on its bunker coat that has less of an abrasion factor and interfaces better with a fire helmet and a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) face piece.

Read the full article here.

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A study by the Fire Protection Research Association, “Thermal Capacity of Fire Fighter Protective Clothing,” shed new light on the issue of stored energy in 2008:

This laboratory based study shows that the Stored Energy Test (SET) method provides information not provided by any other protective performance test method currently incorporated in NFPA 1971 Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting. It supports a hypothesis that sub-flashover burn injuries may occur as the result of two different heat transmission mechanisms, or combination of two thermal phenomena. Tests conducted on moisture preconditioned materials exposed for 1.5 and 2.0 minutes to 0.2 cal/cm2sec radiant heat, predict burns mainly from transmitted thermal energy. For these conditions, the SET functions essentially as a Radiant Protective Performance (RPP) test for moist samples with attached trim or reinforcements. For 1.0 minute radiant heat exposure followed by contact compression, SET performance is more noticeably influenced by thermal energy discharged from the heated turnout materials. Both phenomena could contribute to the burn hazard, depending on the specifics of the heat exposure and other conditions of use. In both scenarios, the presence of non-porous reflective trim or non porous reinforcements reduces test performance when these materials are attached to the outer surface of a turnout composites consisting of a thermal liner, outer shell and a breathable moisture barrier.

This study and others have led to the upcoming changes in the 2012 edition of the NFPA 1971 standard. In its first rendition, the new stored energy requirement will only apply to the garment sleeves. The imposed criteria requires manufacturers to make changes to how trim bands are applied and investigate alternative materials or construction methods for addressing any exterior reinforcements on coat sleeves. LION Connects provided an update on the 2012 edition in August:

(more…)

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From FireRescue1.com

In fire experiments conducted in uniformly furnished, but vacant Chicago-area townhouses, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers uncovered temperature and heat-flow conditions that can seriously damage facepiece lenses on standard firefighter breathing equipment, a potential contributing factor for first-responder fatalities and injuries.

The findings are detailed in a report* from a research study sponsored by the U.S. Fire Administration and Department of Homeland Security. The work is an important step toward improving what may be the most vulnerable component of a firefighter’s protective gear in high-heat conditions: the facepiece lenses of the so-called self-contained breathing apparatus, or SCBA.

Failure of the lens can expose a firefighter to toxic gases and can result in burns to the respiratory tract as well as asphyxiation. In several SCBA-related deaths, degraded masks were found affixed to the faces of victims while their equipment continued to supply air.

In two of four realistic living-room fire scenarios tested by NIST, “lenses exhibited bubbling and loss of visual acuity, as well as severe deformation, and, in one case, a hole,” the NIST team says.

Read the full article on FireRescue1.com.

You can read the USFA’s report on facepiece thermal performance here.

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