Drill on PPE and firefighter safety

Tonight was drill night, and I think it went well.

The topic I chose was definitely not the most interesting one out there, but I feel it is an important one.

PPE Inspection and Care.

Believe me, I heard a couple of groans. However, by the time we were done, everyone was paying attention and claimed to have learned something.

We went through all the standard BS about the topic, but then I added some stuff of my own, and from others, that really seemed to add to it.

Thyroid cancer. There are studies out there linking it in firefighters to absorption through the skin on the neck. What nasty filthy soot and carbon filled thing do we have around our necks a lot of the time? Our protective hoods. The thinking now is that it is not one bad  fire or incident causing a lot of FF cancer, but the cumulative effect of hundreds of fires over the years.

Then there is off gassing. You know, when your gear has reached its TPP and begins to break down and burn............ Getting water on the fire, and good tactics will reduce this possibility because if the fire is not growing, and hopefully shrinking, the chances of your gear getting hot enough to off gas and burn are greatly reduced.

 

 

 

So, all in all, I think the training went well. We even performed a gear inspection and found one guy whose bunker pants had a bad liner, and another guy whose helmet shell had a crack in it from the edge up the front behind the leather front. We replaced both bad items and handed out some more PASS devices (We have integrated PASS on our packs, but also have stand alone devices for brush fires and outside ops).

 

 

This Saturday I will be doing the same drill for our folks who work second shift or missed tonight. Then we will be doing a drill on scene size up and report on conditions...............

 

 

KCCO