By Richard Marinucci

Today's fire service offers more personal protective equipment (PPE) than ever before. This should not be a revelation to anyone in this business. Besides having more options, the standard protective equipment has continued to improve to offer a higher level of safety while still allowing firefighters to do the job. For example, turnout gear is lighter and more resistant to heat and has a better moisture barrier. Having the right tools is only part of the equation. Firefighters must accept the responsibility to not only use the equipment but use it properly.

Required and Enforced

I recently was in the locker room of a professional football team and I noticed a large poster that demonstrated the proper way to wear the uniform and pads. I wondered why this was necessary since all of the players have been in football most of their lives. I realized that the players need a reminder and probably will look for a shortcut if they think it gives them an advantage. As such, the league does its best to educate the players so that they get the maximum protection. Of course, the requirement to wear the equipment properly is mandated and the players are subject to fines if they deviate from the standard. Players in the National Football League (NFL) have the best safety equipment available yet will not necessarily embrace all of it unless forced to do so. Although education is a part of the strategy, enforcement is necessary. This seems like a good plan to follow with firefighters to make sure they are operating as safely as possible.

Departments must continually educate personnel on the value and use of safety equipment. Education may not be the only word to use-it could be nagging! Regardless, the purpose is to minimize the chance that complacency becomes the root cause of a preventable injury. Firefighters must continually be reminded to use their chin straps, cover exposed skin, wear their hoods, and have their gloves on. Why is it the responsibility of the leadership to do this when the firefighters should see the obvious advantage to their well-being? It is for the same reason the NFL feels it is important to continually remind its players to use their equipment.

But, continual reminders can only go so far. There must be consequences when all else fails. Football players are to wear the equipment as prescribed by the league. If not, they are subject to penalties that can hurt their team's chances of winning and they can be fined, which hurts their pocketbooks. If an organization is really serious about an issue, it must be willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that its wishes are met.

Changing Mindsets

There are other things to consider. In previous occupations, I can recall workers disabling safety equipment-items designed to keep them from being injured. Occasionally someone would get hurt. Of course, it was never the worker's fault! Now, I am not here to accuse anyone else in the fire service of blatantly disregarding safe working practices. But, I can say that maybe in my younger days, along with some of my coworkers, we may have taken shortcuts. Because of my age, I can be reasonably sure that the statute of limitations has passed. Looking at this experience, I know shortcuts could only be taken if the culture of the organization allowed it to happen. I believe that to be the case and know that it takes great effort to undo this line of thinking. It is worth the effort for the leadership of an organization to change the mindset of its members so that this is not acceptable.

Always a Chance for Injury

Even if all the PPE is worn correctly and all safety devices are used, there is still a chance for an injury. This can be minimized if the equipment is used as intended and operators are properly trained. This can become more challenging to departments as they now have many more options when choosing

Alan M. Petrillo

Personal protective equipment (PPE) makers are regularly talking to firefighters and fire command personnel to determine what they want to see in their turnout gear and how it might be redesigned or modified to make it as functional as possible.

Lighter, Less Bulky

Globe Manufacturing Inc. introduced its latest embodiment of what firefighters have been asking for in their gear with its PBI Lightweight Gold System.

Mark Mordecai, Globe's director of business development, says Globe has heard from firefighters that they want less restrictive, lighter, less bulky turnout gear without sacrificing the breathability or thermal protection offered by current PPE. "This requires a garment design, its fit, and the material it is crafted from to work together the way the firefighter's body moves," Mordecai says. "For our G-Xtreme turnout gear, which is less restrictive because it has length in those areas where the body bends, we've introduced the dimension of shape through lighter and more flexible materials to fit the firefighter's body better."

Mordecai points out that Globe added shape to G-Xtreme last year to improve fit and reduce bulk, and with the new PBI materials the gear now is even more flexible and has superior break-open resistance, which allows for still greater thermal protection.

"The outer shell of gear made with a traditional fabric is pretty stiff," he notes, "but using the PBI Max with its lighter filament Kevlar® we get more flex yet still a very strong fabric, so it maximizes both strength and flexibility."

Gear lightness and extra flexibility is accomplished by adding the PBI fiber to the moisture substrate and thermal liner, Mordecai says. He adds that "restriction, bulk, inflexibility, and weight are the bad guys in PPE design, so you have to address those areas and shape the turnout gear to fit the firefighter's body."

(1) Globe Manufacturing has given its G-Xtreme turnout gear more strength and flexibility through use of a PBI Max fabric made from a lighter filament Kevlar. (Photo courtesy of Globe Manufacturing.)

Component Interaction

Karen Lehtonen, director of products for Lion, says Lion has been retooling PPE as a result of firefighter feedback. "Our goal is to take an innovative approach to make turnout gear more functional and stress reducing and provide better mobility," she says. "Those goals are where we're focused with retooling our PPE."

Lehtonen says that key areas Lion is looking at are interfaces and interoperability with other PPE elements. "We want to make sure it's not harder to put gloves on after putting on the turnout coat or harder to put on a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) after being geared up," she says. "We're also looking at how the helmet interacts with the turnout coat, hood, and SCBA face piece."

Lion's recent redesign of its V-Force turnout gear that uses PBI Max fabric outer shells and Glide liners has resulted in a balance of comfort, mobility, and protection, Lehtonen maintains. "These fabrics have higher lubricity levels so they improve mobility of the firefighter and the fit of the garment," she says. "And, we've incorporated greater venting and stretch into our turnout gear. We took the concept from athletic wear of allowing interior heat to vent out to the exterior, while preventing exterior heat from coming in, and are adding stretch panels in areas where greater stretch mobility is needed."

(1) The XT designation in the MSA Fire M7 XT SCBA system stands for extreme temperature. (Photo courtesy of MSA Fire.)

NFPA 1981 also standardized the personal alert safety system (PASS) alarm sound and pattern and moved the low-air alarm activation from 25 percent of air remaining to 33 percent. Other changes include a new communications test protocol changing to a speech transmission index (STI) where the speaking diaphragm has to pass the criterion of 0.45 on the STI and optional voice amplification must pass the criterion of 0.50 on the STI. The standard also has emergency buddy breathing system (EBBS) performance requirements, but these are still being worked out with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

The five companies that have recently released new SCBA designs that expect to be compliant with the 2013 versions of NFPA 1981 and 1852 are Scott Safety, Avon Protection, MSA Fire, Draeger, and Honeywell First Responder Products. Currently, all five are awaiting notification of compliancy. All SCBA manufacturers must stop selling SCBA manufactured to the 2007 standards on August 31, 2013. There is no set timeframe for hearing about compliancy.

Reducing Weight

John Dinning, Scott Safety's North American product line manager, fire service, says Scott's new SCBA platform is the Air-Pak X3, a sleeker and more durable SCBA than prior models that makes better use of weight management and addresses comfort issues. "We look at this platform in a new way in that it's sleeker than SCBAs in the past," Denning points out. "And, it's available in both the snap change connection and compressed gas connection."

Honeywell First Responder Products introduced its new BA8013 SCBA platform, which Jeff Shipley, Honeywell's senior product manager, says improves the system's ergonomics and functionality and provides a savings in weight. "We shaved the weight of the new system from our Warrior product," Shipley says, "and enhanced the ergonomics by better distribution of the weight. With the BA8013, the weight sits more on the firefighter's hips because of a swivel pivot mechanism on the back of the unit that has a knuckle attached to the frame so the firefighter can move more freely without having the frame limit his motions." Shipley notes the shoulder straps also were modified so they don't pinch when a

By Christian P. Koop

I recently had the good fortune of attending two premier trade shows: the National Truck and Equipment (NTEA) Work Truck Show and the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC), which are both held at the same venue, the relatively new convention center in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. I say good fortune because I had never been to the NTEA show and it had been many years since I had been to FDIC. Both shows were very impressive in their own right and by the obvious fact that they were well organized and sponsored. Both offered a wide array of training classes and symposiums. They were well attended and both ran like well-oiled machines. Kudos are in order to the folks behind the scenes who prepare and organize these huge events.

Fleet Management

One of the conference sessions I attended at the NTEA show was a two-day fleet management symposium. The symposium was presented by Kelley Walker and was very informative. The main focus was about managing the modern shop with an emphasis on reducing capital and operating budgets in the fleet and on improving technician productivity both in the shop and field while incorporating the latest technologies such as vehicle GPS and telematics. Long-haul trucking is at least 10 years ahead of most other fleet operations in this area.

Walker pointed out that for a fleet vehicle to be efficient, it must be "matched to the application, productive, efficient to operate, cost-effective, safe, user-friendly, regulatory-compliant, and reasonably priced." This brings me to what this article is about-responsible fleet management is a philosophy that needs to start when new apparatus are specified with the idea that if the units are matched properly to the applications, they will be more cost-effective to operate. It is about constantly looking for ways to cut costs and improving efficiency in the modern shop. It needs to involve everyone in the organization, and if everyone buys into it, you can ultimately reduce operating cost, improve quality, and still make gains in overall organization efficiency-including the shop. Although Walker was not speaking directly about emergency response vehicles, this rationale can be applied to these vehicles as well.

Matching Applications

If you have been around this field for a while, you can probably think of some vehicles you've had or possibly still have in your fleet that don't meet some or even any of these vital requirements. If your fleet is not matched properly to the application, it is overloaded, or the duty cycle is too severe for its design, it will require extremely high levels of maintenance and repairs to keep it operational. I have seen this happen, and sometimes critics blame the vehicle and manufacturer. But, the reality is that it may not have been specified properly for the application.

To further express my point, here is an analogy by Alan Brunacini, retired chief of the Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department: "Sending a fire apparatus on a medical call is like delivering flowers with a cement truck." Unfortunately, most of us can relate or recall having some of these vehicles in our fleet. Some of these units are labeled lemons, and although some of them may very well have been true lemons, others were just not properly specified for the application. I attribute some of my gray hair to vehicles that fall into this category.

Simplicity Saves Money

I sometimes affectionately reference an old acronym, KISS, which stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid." However, I have slightly modified it to help us get by in this tougher economy to KISSSM, pronounced kisum, which simply means "Keep It Simple, Stupid, and Save Money." Responsible fleet management will help today's fleet managers and maintenance supervisors meet the objectives and goals of those faced with today's tight budgets and still

Alan M. Petrillo

When a firefighter has to use his personal escape system, there's no time for fiddling around with its component parts, so manufacturers of such systems have refined their products to make them intuitive for firefighters and simple to use.

Hooks

Matt Hunt, rescue safety market manager for Sterling Rope Company Inc., says his company has developed two new escape system hooks-the Lightning and the Lightning GT-that allow firefighters to bail out of a tenuous situation as fast as possible.

The hooks are precision-machined of aerospace grade 7075-T6 aluminum and heat-treated for maximum strength, Hunt says. "The Lightning and Lightning GT combine a hook device with a hitching slot that can attach onto a windowsill or can quickly be fastened around an anchor in a room," he says. "The GT model has a wire gate for easily connecting to a remote anchor, eliminating the challenge of threading the rope through a hitching slot in a low-visibility situation."

(1) Sterling Rope Company introduced two new escape system hooks- the Lighting and the Lightning GT (shown here). The Lightning GT has a wire gate over a hitching slot that allows the hook to be quickly fastened around an anchor in a room. (Photo courtesy of Sterling Rope Co.)

Hunt notes that the new hooks can be paired with any approved harness and used with Sterling's escape kit, consisting of an F4 descent device, a choice of three escape customized ropes (FireTech, SafeTech, and EscapeTech) in a variety of lengths, and either a lumbar or hip-mounted bag to hold the equipment.

Petzl USA also has developed a new hook for use in personal escape systems-a forged aluminum model that incorporates a slot in the spine so a rescue rope can be hitched off. "Our new hook is designed to be tied off with a simple clove hitch," says John Evans, Petzl's marketing director. "If a firefighter has a suitable anchor in a room, say a radiator or a pipe like you'd find in an industrial setting, then he could tie off to that instead of using the hook on a windowsill or other location."

Evans says the new hook is designed to be used in conjunction with Petzl's EXO personal rescue system that includes the EXO descent device and a length of 7.5-millimeter Technora® aramid fiber rope.

(2) A firefighter uses Petzl's EXO personal rescue system to bail out of a building. The system includes an EXO descent device, Technora® aramid fiber rope, and a forged aluminum hook with a slotted spine. (Photo courtesy of Petzl USA.)

Systems

RIT Safety Solutions makes the Pre-Rigged Escape Safety System (PRESS) for firefighters in need of personal rescue, says Omar Jordan, RIT's owner. "Every egress system should be 100 percent prerigged, integrated, fire-resistant, and lightweight," Jordan says. "We're the only manufacturer that makes the complete system itself-all the equipment in the system and the life safety harness."

The PRESS includes a fully rigged Class II harness; an escape line of either 3/8-inch tubular webbing or eight-millimeter Kevlar® rope; and RIT's AL2 or AL descender device and an anchor, where RIT offers a choice of its autolocking carabiner or a Crosby, Flash, or NARS hook.

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