Carl J. Haddon
The term personal protective equipment (PPE) should speak for itself. It is designed to protect us from the hazards we face as fire and rescue personnel. Are there times when our PPE puts us in harm’s way? I believe there are. For the sake of this article, the PPE I’ll be referring to is firefighting turnout or bunker gear.
Like many departments across the country, the vast majority of fire department calls (besides emergency medical service) here in our area are motor vehicle crashes. We respond to vehicle accidents like we would respond to any other emergency call. We are “turned out” in full bunker gear, with designated members or riding assignments that will don self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA).
Our response area consists of roughly 50 miles of mountainous interstate highway that ends on the border with western Montana. Most of that Interstate parallels the Salmon River on one side of the highway and the Beaverhead Mountain Range on the other. We (Idaho) also happen to be a state (at least this part of Idaho) that doesn’t believe too much in the use of guard rails, Armco, or “Jersey” K Rail type concrete barriers along the highways. “They” call it “wild and scenic highway.” We firefighters call it something else, but that is a story for another time and place.
Like many other states with rivers that parallel major interstate highways, our state department of transportation enforces state law that says (paraphrased): Any emergency responder working an incident between the frost line (white highway line on the outer lane edge nearest the river) and the water’s edge must wear a personal flotation device (PFD) at all times. Violations carry a hefty fine for the individual as well as the department he’s working for.
Because of the terrain, our significant vehicle crashes involve one or both of the following scenarios with almost no exceptions: Wrecked vehicles come to rest in or near the water, or wrecked vehicles bounce off of the mountainside and come to rest on the highway or near or in the water. The same scenario holds true for most of our vehicle fires. Regardless, if we don’t have to use our apparatus as a blocker, we are forced to park on the river side of the frost line, requiring us to operate with PFDs on as part of our PPE. How well does bunker gear and a PFD work together?
PFD/Turnout Gear Interaction
PFDs, or life jackets, don’t mix well with turnouts, or SCBA. Even replacing a bunker coat with a life jacket doesn’t really work in a practical sense. I won’t get into the flotation values of various PFDs, but suffice it to say that even a class 5 whitewater rescue life jacket is no match for submerged leather firefighting boots and bunker pants with all of the goodies in our pockets. With or without a life jacket on, how quickly can we get out of our remaining bunker gear (especially with a life jacket on) should we find ourselves in moving water? Is this something that you train on? Should you? Please don’t get me wrong, a life jacket will certainly help to add something to your buoyancy, even with turnouts on, but water—especially swiftly moving river water—and PPE do not mix well.
This issue brings up another hot button topic regarding PPE and firefighter station wear. What about uniform shorts? I’ve heard and had lots of discussion about the pros and cons of departments allowing or not allowing their members to wear uniform sho
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