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.