Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
A fundamental safety measure for wildland firefighters is wearing the wildland firefighter’s uniform. Standard firefighting clothing includes a Nomex shirt and pants, hard-hat, gloves and sturdy work-boots. Nomex is the brand name for a high-strength, fire-resistant synthetic fabric, generically known as aramid.
Every firefighter carries a personal fire shelter, made of aluminum foil glued to fiberglass cloth (Fuller 1991) fashioned into a pup tent. Designed as a last resort to be deployed when all else fails, fire shelters have endured considerable controversy since inception in 1960—including claims that they provide inadequate protection. With sufficient warning, firefighters are expected to clear a 4 x 8 ft area, remove the shelter from its packaging, then deploy and climb into the tent in order to escape the heat and flames from an oncoming fire. The firefighter is instructed to wear his or her gloves and, while lying prone, use arms and legs to hold the tent’s edges down in the face of oncoming winds. Shelters are intended to protect the lungs and air passages by providing a cooler air pocket within the tent, although firefighters will sometimes partially deploy shelters as a shield to deflect heat while attempting to escape a fire. Aside from fire entrapments, shelters are sometimes overlapped and taped together to drape over and protect historic cabins or buildings in the backcountry from oncoming fires.
Shelters are deployed in emergencies only and do not immunize a firefighter from injury. In fact, some firefighters have perished inside their shelters from excessive heat exposure despite correct deployment, indicating the need for improved materials and design specifications. Following the tragic 13 fatalities on the 1994 South Canyon Fire, numerous calls were issued for improvements in shelter fabric and technical specifications; these were eventually implemented in 2003. In the US, standards and technical specifications for clothing and equipment are maintained through the USDA Forest Service Missoula Equipment Development Center. Tests of various materials are conducted in laboratory and field burning trials designed to test conformance to heat stress loads, portability, toxicity, and other standards.
Encyclopedia ID: p347
