TURNOUT GEAR IN THE WATER: SINK OR SWIM?
The fire service is decades behind when it comes to water-related incidents. Not enough attention is paid to safety procedures specific to on or near-water incidents, and lack of training has fostered fear and ignorance that increase the potential for disaster when a firefighter wearing turnout gear accidentally falls into a body of water. Firefighters have been told, and they believe, that if they fall into the water wearing turnout gear they immediately will drown.
WATER INCIDENTS REQUIRE APPROPRIATE GEAR
Many fire departments still insist on the age-old protocol that has firefighters responding to every call in hill turnout gear. This rule must be rewritten if water-related survival rates are to be improved. A firefighter is not permitted to enter a fully involved, local barn without the proper protective gear, yet we think nothing of sending that same individual to a water rescue totally unprotected. An SOP that meets the minimum standard for personal water survival must be followed when responding to onor near-water incidents. These events require specialized equipment-ready capability’. At the minimum, even responder should be issued a modern, streamlined Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device (PFD)—not an old-style, giant, bulky device. Bulky PFDs restrict movement and are less comfortable; thus, the firefighter is reluctant to wear one. The PFD should be of professional standard — not a recreational or horse-collar type. All responding personnel should be told not to approach a body of water w ithin 40 feet—or a greater distance in the case of a sloping shore line —if they are not wearing a PFD.
The PFD should have affixed to it a knife for cutting lines, duckweed algae, and fishing monofilament as well as a whistle capable of being heard on shore above the noises of vehicles, personnel, and the wind, which could prevent the voice of a would-be rescuer floating down current from being heard.
For w inter operations on or near a body of water or when water temperatures are lower than 50°F, a fully encapsulating cold-water exposure/ survival suit must be worn. Shorebased personnel should wear appropriate clothing, PFDs, and gloves if they w ill be handling wet, cold line.
ON-WATER RESPONSE
I wish I could cite only one water response during which a firefighter drowned because he was wearing standard turnout gear instead of protective equipment appropriate for water operations; unfortunately, however, there have been many. These fatalities have occurred in circumstances that could present themselves in virtually every community. In a small New’Jersey town, for example, a
young firefighter with full turnout gear strapped to his body drowned almost instantly when he accidentally fell out of the rescue vessel while attempting to save the lives of residents in peril from flood waters. This young man never should have been allowed on the water without the protective clothing appropriate for water operations.
IMPROVING SURVIVAL CHANCES
Suppose that you were working a fire on a pier, in a building close to or on the water, or on the first floor of a house with a backyard pool and accidentally landed in the water wearing full turnout gear. What do you think are your chances for survival? They are greater than you think — if you know how to use your turnout gear to your advantage.
Survival training begins with the realization that turnout equipment does not necessarily cause immediate drowning. If used correctly, in fact, the equipment may allow you to remain on the water’s surface for a prolonged period of time.
Following are some guidelines that can help you improve your chances for survival if you find yourself in water while wearing full turnout gear.
Helmet. If your helmet is made of leather, throw it away from you immediately upon entering the water. It sinks, and if it remains on your head it will cause a negative buoyancy that can contribute to your drowning. The fiberglass helmets we tested at Lifeguard Systems, however, showed a natural flotation and give some positive buoyancy capability. Remove the fiberglass helmet from your head with as little movement as possible and bring it down under your upper body with the opening pointed downward. We have found that when used properly, the fiberglass helmet itself can keep a firefighter floating for an indefinite period.
(Photos by Frank and Chris Priest.)
Turnout coat. If the coat is buttoned or snapped as it should be and its stitching has not been damaged by exposure to flash heat, it has a natural tendency to hold air. He sure to keep your head in a forward position and gently squeeze off the neck opening with your hand to prevent air from escaping through that opening and the wrist openings when the hands are placed above the head.
During our tests, hundreds of firefighters entered the water in a number of ways—jumping, falling, stumbling, and slipping among them. In all cases air was trapped in the upper portion of the coat, even when the firefighter entered the water head first.
Again, the flotation capability’ of the coat is directly related to the integrity of the stitching. Coats repeatedly exposed to intense heat held air for a far shorter period. We found that the firefighter could add a slight amount of flotation by pulling the neck piece slightly and blowing into the left or right collar.
If the coat was open upon entering the water, the firefighter was able to grab the right and left collars to scoop air into the coat by quickly pulling forward on both sides and was able to maintain a slight amount of flotation by holding the neck piece and upper portion of the coat closed.
Several factors can cause the coat to lose buoyancy, however. When that occurs, ditch the coat. When attempting to remove it. be sure to maintain positive buoyancy by opening the coat slow ly and from the bottom up. Once the coat is completely opened, remove it by grabbing both bottom ends and bringing it up over the top of your head, catching air in the bag portion of the coat; then pull your arms out of the sleeves. If the coat is removed by dropping it down past the rear of the body, as is done when on land, the chances of drowning increase. We found that the inner lining often entraps the arms low and behind the body. Once the coat is behind the body and off the shoulders, it lacks positive buoyancy and has a significant tendency to drop below the buttocks and around the legs, thus greatly restricting the movement of the lower and upper extremities and causing rapid drowning.
Bringing the coat over your head and keeping it in front, on the other hand, permits you to throw the coat away easily without restricted extremity movement. Another advantage of this coat-removal technique is that the collar can be picked up and used to scoop additional air under the unit; this creates minimal flotation, similar to that provided by Navy survival clothing.
Bunker pants. The pants should be removed before the coat because the pants provide no positive buoyancyBecause of the pant’s suspenders, the coat, unfortunately, must be removed first. In some types of accidental entry into the water, the pants entrapped enough air to assist flotation, but that was not a common occurrence. The pants usually tend to wrap around the legs and can accelerate the progression of a drowning, especially since your face must be in the water during removal. Once bunker pants were removed, we could find no consistent reason to keep them.
Turnout boots. The boots also must be taken off prior to removing the bunker pants. Whether in the high or low position, the boots must be filled with water for easy removal. You will have very little leg strength or power with the boots on. Move your legs very’ slowly, wiggle your toes, and gently rotate your ankles; allow the boots to fill with water. Most boots will fall aw ay once filled with w’ater. If you try to kick them off, you will become very fatigued and will lose air in the coat. Snug-fitting boots are a little more difficult to remove. Although a hoot in the upside-down position at the water’s surface may hold air, the gain is not enough to warrant holding on to the boot.
SCBA. Self-contained breathing apparatus was never meant to be used underwater, especially salt water. If it was meant to be a SCUBA, it would be called a SCUBA (see sidebar on page 79).
DON’T PANIC
In all our tests, individuals who struggled, moved quickly, lifted their hands above their face, panicked, or kicked hard immediately lost air from the turnout gear, making “equipmentresponsible” drowning inevitable.
It is very important that you trust the minimal flotation of the gear, remain calm, and move slowly. I cannot emphasize enough that moving quickly will cause a rapid loss of buoyancy and submersion.
It is important to have verbal communication with firefighters in the water to calm and relax them. Invite your local police department and EMS personnel to participate in your drills so that they can understand how turnout gear reacts when a firefighter accidentally ends up in the water. A police officer or EMT might be the only individual in position who can talk an immersed firefighter into surviving long enough to be rescued.
PRIOR TRAINING NEEDED
Don’t assume that you will survive an accidental submersion without having undergone several pool-training sessions. When training in a pool, use a harness with a line back to shore on all in-water personnel safety swimmers. Work with one piece of equipment at a time—just the helmet, just the coat, and so on. For the first attempts at removing boots and bunker pants, wear a PFD to guarantee flotation during the learning process. Position yourself near the pool slope or side. During our training sessions for nonswimmers, the fiberglass helmet has proved to be the most important piece of equipment. Check each helmet for its flotation capability.
Training is the key. Without it, none of the discussed techniques stand a chance of working. Understand that not all turnout equipment will function in the same way. If your equipment has not been tested, you cannot rely on it. Likewise, no two water environments are the same. Thus survival in turnout equipment is not guaranteed.
Review your department’s SOPs as they pertain to active response to water-related emergencies, especially with regard to the type of equipment specified. Note that ice rescue is also a water-related emergency, since ice has the potential for cracking and causing accidental submersion. PFDs, lines, harnesses set across the solar plexus area, exposure suits, and so on should be available for all types of weather operations. Also, check with the manufacturer of your SCBA to learn the proper procedures to use in case of the equipment’s submersion in water.
