By ANTHONY DI GIOVANNI
With a product as impor- tant as turnout gear, manufacturers have an obligation to speak clearly, use understandable language, and never “spin” the benefits when describing its components, design, or performance. Following are some terms and descriptions worth knowing when analyzing the gear.
Safe gear. This term is often thrown about indiscriminantly and sometimes is used in a competitive product comparison. There is no such thing as totally “safe” turnout gear. Although it is designed to help keep firefighters safe, there are just too many factors that can compromise this safety. Manufacturers try to build in extra safety buffers but, in the end, no gear can claim to be the only “safe gear.” Meeting National Fire Protection Association 1971, Standard on Protective Ensemble for Structural Fire Fighting, requirements means the suit and its components have passed a battery of industry-accepted tests. Meeting these tests is no guarantee against the unforeseen circumstances in a fire.
 Illustration courtesy of Sperian Protection. |
Some turnout gear can be safer than others. However, the claim of “safer” is likely a function of added features or thermal enhancements. For example, enhanced knee padding will increase safety at the knees, but extending this to mean that a particular brand of gear is safer than another is a distortion and can lead to a false sense of safety.
The reality is that turnout gear, like air bags, only helps to protect you. Saying “It protects you” falls into the same category as broadly claiming “Safe gear.”
Light gear. When you hear that gear is “light and breathable,” your ears should perk up. It’s usually accompanied by the claim “The breathability factor is so high that the firefighter stays cool.” In fact, with all turnout gear weighing eight to 10 pounds, no manufacturer can really say its gear is light. Although certain models or fabric combinations can be lighter than more conventional gear, the fact remains: Multiple-layer protective clothing is never really light. Manufacturers can create a perception of lightness by using extra-slippery inner liners or by making hair-splitting comparisons between seven-ounce vs. 7.5-ounce liners, but this, too, is misleading.
Breathable. The word “breathable” is used as if it were an air-exchange system. A multiple-layer garment, of which one layer is a membrane film, cannot freely breathe in the true sense of the word.
According to testing performed in the 1990s, the breathability factor, accurately measured as total heat loss (THL), is virtually indiscernible to the firefighter above 205 THL. When any manufacturer or distributor claims the breathability of its turnout gear prevents firefighter heat stress and heart attacks, this is a misstatement.
Firefighting is an inherently dangerous job that requires rigor and endurance in high ambient temperatures. As the microclimate in a multilayer insulating suit warms because of physical exertion and a hot environment, the heart works harder. Heat stress may trigger any predisposition to heart attacks. A suit’s breathability is only one of many factors that could affect heart health.
Fireproof or fire retardant. All fire-protective garment materials are required to be “inherently fire resistant.” This means that when exposed to extreme heat they will thermally decompose and go from a solid to a decomposed solid to vapor without ever going through a melt liquid stage; this is very important when you consider that scalding, liquefied solids can stick to the skin.
It is equally important to understand that turnout gear works as a system. When engineering a garment, manufacturers consider all aspects related to heat energy transfer temperature, time, and medium. The system must sufficiently reduce the amount of heat energy entering the suit to prevent a burn injury. The turnout gear will dissipate heat as it travels through its layers because of fiber chemistry, fabric weave, material weights, and construction methods. Manufacturers can simulate thermal energy heat transfer scenarios in a lab with thermal protective performance (TPP) testing.
TPP represents the escape time a firefighter has in a flashover situation. This is not exactly true. Flashover survival depends not just on temperature, exposure time, and garment composition but also on the firefighter’s position relative to the flash and the environment’s oxygen.
This does not mean that turnout gear layers are unimportant. For example, some outer shell materials thermally transform themselves at high heat levels, absorbing more thermal energy, while others maintain the same structure until much higher temperatures but allow more heat through. This is not a case of one fabric’s being inferior to another. Rather, it is more a case of preference and choosing the right three-layer combination system for the department.
Selecting protective clothing is not simple. It requires an understanding of what the gear can and cannot do. This is why manufacturers need to speak clearly and firefighters need to listen carefully.
ANTHONY DI GIOVANNI is strategic marketing director of Sperian Protective Apparel, which manufactures and markets fire protective clothing under the Sperian Fire brand. He is a member of the NFPA 1971 committee, Standard on Protective Ensemble for Structural Firefighting. He has more than 18 years of experience with industrial and safety products.
