Different Technique For Buddy Breathing
Assistant Director of Fire Training Connecticut State Fire School
A third method of buddy breathing with self-contained breathing apparatus has been adopted for training by the Connecticut State Fire School. Using this method, the fire fighter needing air inserts his facepiece breathing tube into the mask of the fire fighter supplying emergency air.
We had been teaching buddy breathing through sharing a common regulator or a facepiece. However, during a talk with a captain at the New York Fire Department Training Academy, we learned of this third technique.
Photos by Ken Robinson
After we returned to the Connecticut State Fire School office in Meriden, we talked with several members of the Meriden Fire Department who expressed an interest in testing the tubein-mask buddy breathing technique. Upon completion of their tests both in smoke and ambient air, the Meriden fire fighters outlined a procedure for this technique.
Buddy-breathing procedure
The procedure is as follows:
- Notify your partner of your loss of air.
- Disconnect your inhalation tube from the regulator.
- Hand the end of your inhalation tube to your partner.
- The partner breaks the seal on his facepiece with one finger and inserts the end of your inhalation tube just below his cheekbone.
- The partner makes sure the end of your inhalation tube is far enough inside his facepiece so that the coupling is past the point of interference with the seal.
- The fire fighter with the air supply must seal off the space where contamination can enter around the inserted inhalation tube. A gloved hand can minimize leaks that could allow contaminated air to enter the facepiece.
- Both fire fighters must now leave the hazardous atmosphere.
Passes jogging test
During their tests, members of the Meriden Fire Department determined that the new technique can be used while crawling as well as walking. They found that neither buddy had to alter his breathing cadence because the single regulator was capable of handling the demand, whatever it was. These members jogged in full turnout gear with breathing apparatus to simulate the heavy respiratory demands that occur during fire fighting. They still obtained a constant and ample supply.
They also found that this buddybreathing technique can be used by fire fighters wearing different makes of self-contained breathing apparatus. On the other hand, sharing a common regulator is not possible when the inhalation hose coupling of one manufacturer does not fit the regulator of another.
While wearing a pressure-demand breathing apparatus, the fire fighter supplying air to another was able to seal the facepiece around his partner’s breathing tube so that we could not hear any air escaping.
In our tests, we also found that a man with a pressure-demand breathing apparatus could provide adequate air to a partner who also wore a pressure-demand unit. If the fire fighter receiving air from a pressure-demand unit is using a demand breathing apparatus, he will experience a loss of air through his exhalation valve. However, once buddy breathing starts, the fire fighters should immediately leave the building as the time the air supply will last under use by two fire fighters will depend on the amount of air in the air supplier’s cylinder.
Just to test the possibilities of the tube-in-mask buddy breathing system further, three Meriden fire fighters breathed off a single air cylinder. The second man put his breathing tube into the mask of the first and the third fire fighter put his breathing tube into the mask of the second. Even the third man received enough air to be comfortable.
We believe that the tube-in-mask technique for buddy breathing eliminates some disadvantages of other buddy-breathing techniques and offers advantages of its own. Drill and become familiar with this newer technique before you have to use it at a fire.
