What about the concept of a personal protective equipment (PPE) warehouse on wheels to help address the problem of putting contaminated PPE back on the apparatus?

The use of a warehouse on wheels is not new to some fire departments. A few larger metro departments have adopted this concept for keeping their stations stocked with expendable items, such as cleaning supplies, emergency medical service supplies, toilet paper, and office supplies. A vehicle, such as a step van, is stocked with these supplies and makes a regular—typically weekly—visit to each station to replenish their supplies.

This application has merit for a PPE warehouse on wheels. The premise is that contaminated PPE should not be carried in the cab of the apparatus or in a personal vehicle in the case of volunteer firefighters. One of the typical responses to establishing a standard operating procedure stating that contaminated PPE should not be placed in an apparatus cab is that the crews must remain out of service until they return to the station to have their PPE cleaned or access their second set of PPE. Or, the department does not offer a second set of PPE for its firefighters.

THE CONCEPT

The PPE warehouse on wheels addresses this concern. A dedicated vehicle, or maybe a trailer, is stocked with loaner gear and dispatched to a working fire. Firefighters can bag their contaminated PPE and immediately be provided with loaner gear while still on the scene. This concept could be adopted on a county or regional basis for smaller fire departments. It could work well for turnout coats, turnout pants, hoods, gloves, and helmet replacement inserts. Footwear could be a little more problematic, as sizing is more crucial. However, cleaning footwear while on the scene is more easily accomplished than with fabric PPE such as coats, pants, and hoods. Helmet shells can also be decontaminated a bit easier.

As mentioned, sizing for footwear creates a need for a modification of a loaner gear program. This might also be a concern for sizing of the other elements. Most sizes for coats and trousers are listed in specific inch measurements. For loaner gear, this could be softened to having men’s and women’s sizing on small, medium, large, x-large, xx-large, etc. After all, PPE as currently addressed in National Fire Protection Association 1971, Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, is outerwear.

The above described sizing issue has been further explored by some who advocate that PPE should not be assigned directly to an individual firefighter. In effect, all PPE would be like loaner gear. A firefighter would wear the PPE assigned to him until it needs cleaning, repair, or retirement. The firefighter would then be issued another set of PPE or a specific element of the ensemble and wear it until it needs cleaning, repair, or retirement. This idea is worthy of consideration, and if adopted, there needs to be a tight tracking system in place to monitor the location and condition of each PPE element. Another potential drawback to this idea is that firefighters might not accept that their PPE is not “permanently” assigned to them.

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