By Alan M. Petrillo
Personal protective equipment (PPE) makers are manufacturing structural firefighting turnout gear that is lighter, yet more protective, as well as being designed, in most instances, to be custom fit to the firefighter.
The strides that PPE manufacturers have made in making PPE comfortable and easier to wear, yet still continue to provide the level of safety necessary to protect them, have brought turnout gear to a new level of maturity.
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| 1 Lion’s V-Force turnout gear has notched elbows and knees that assist a firefighter when performing bending movements. (Photo courtesy of Lion.) |
Evolutionary Path
Mark Mordecai, director of business development for Globe Manufacturing Co., observes, “Turnout gear is obviously different than it was 15 to 20 years ago,” adding that Globe “has been on an evolutionary path to improve the experience of wearing turnout gear for the user. Some of that evolution has been enabled by new technology,” Mordecai says, “making PPE more wearable and with enhanced performance and safety.”
Karen Lehtonen, vice president of innovation and product management at Lion, says that Lion’s focus concerning PPE “is on comfort, safety, and mobility in all our turnout gear-garments, helmets, gloves, and boots. Those are the things that we are constantly looking at.”
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| 2 The V-Force turnout gear made by Lion offers an assortment of sleeve versions in the jacket and different fits in the pants to allow for a proper coat-to-pant overlap. (Photo courtesy of Lion.) |
Lehtonen points out that comfort and mobility in turnout gear have to be balanced with the safety factor of the PPE. “There are multiple ways to accomplish that, including design and the various materials used,” Lehtonen says. “We look at the needs of the end users and confer with our suppliers on the materials needed.”
Todd Herring, director of marketing for Fire-Dex, believes that PPE “has evolved significantly over the years, and in the last five to 10 years, we’ve seen a more rapid evolution. Fire-Dex’s approach to that evolution is to look at continuous improvement in the turnout gear.”
Herring notes that heat stress is an important factor to be considered when firefighters are operating in turnout gear. “Fire-Dex has tried to address the issue of heat stress and adapt our products to solve those needs,” he says. “Our turnout gear is custom made and not an off-the-shelf product. The PPE goes through our factory labeled for a specific individual and fire department based on the size and configuration he needs, such as various pockets and other elements for practicality.”
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Posted: Jan 6, 2017
The apparatus bay is the only space that is a common denominator of fire stations across the globe.
How can you have a station without one? From a health, safety, and accident prevention perspective, a lot of information about bays has emerged in recent years that fire departments should address.
Bay Doors
As one who reviewed all vehicle accidents in my 42-station department for 24 years, it was not unusual to see “vehicle vs. overhead door” in the reports. Amazingly, almost all the accidents occurred while responding out of the station on a call. Rarely did I see a report when the accident occurred while returning into the station or leaving the station for a nonemergency response…hmmm. Some of the incidents were truly amazing-including at least two where the truck went through the door when there was no attempt to leave the station. In both cases, the engine was started in the station for unnecessary reasons and “stuff happened.” One Christmas Eve incident was particularly noteworthy. I arrived at the station to see the entire roll-up door laid out across the cab and the entire hosebed of the truck. Almost the entire front of the station wall collapsed. As the saying goes, “You can’t make some of this stuff up!” So much for war stories. You get the point. It has been, and continues to be, an issue.
Drive-Through Bays
Does your station have bay doors in the front and the rear for driving through, or just at the front for backing in? A drive-through bay offers many advantages-if it is truly drive-through. The need for backing is minimized and thus the chances of an accident are minimized. Unfortunately, many (if not most) drive-through bays end up being back-in bays because of other apparatus, vehicles, or equipment stored behind the primary response vehicle. Another advantage of a drive-through is that secondary apparatus or vehicles can respond out the back if parked behind a primary response vehicle. Drive-through bays also offer a secondary means of exiting the station if one of the opposite facing doors is inoperative for whatever reason. The amount of land available for the station often determines if drive-through bays are feasible. Drive-throughs require a lot more real estate.
There are some advantages to back-in-only bays. They might allow for the sleeping areas of the station to be directly located behind the bays, thus providing firefighters direct and quicker access to the bay. And, some people maintain that regular backing increases the skills of the driver/operator.
Four-Fold Doors
Four-fold bay doors (horizontally hinged) are becoming increasingly popular with new stations. They can be retrofitted to many existing stations if there is enough interior floor space available-the opening space typically requires a minimum of four feet of available floor space for the door to open. The four-fold doors open much faster and are far less likely to be struck by an apparatus. The driver can easily tell when the doors are fully open. Models are available that are hardened for ballistics, hurricanes, and tornadoes. These doors are very heavy duty and tested to go through more than a million cycles of opening and closing. Though they are expensive on the front end, they require minimal maintenance. Larger municipal departments have done a cost analysis and found that the initial high cost of the doors is easily justified because of the reduced maintenance costs compared to traditional roll-up doors.
Several departments have installed four-fold doors for the front of the station while keeping traditional roll-up doors in the rear. This is primarily a cost savings initiative, but is a good way to get four-fold doors introduced into the department.
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