Maybe one of the more controversial subjects in the fire service is: When should you wear turnout gear and breathing apparatus? Some firefighters and officers are staunch advocates that any time we get on any fire apparatus for any call, all of our gear should be on. Others, particularly in busy departments, will tell you that that is crazy–that they make so many “shoe runs” (responses where only shoes are needed, not turnout gear) a day that it doesn’t make any sense to put on full turnout gear. This is a challenging question without easy answers, but I will try and provide some considerations for firefighters and officers to think about on fire scenes to provide for a safer environment.
A somewhat simplistic concept is: What if you are not wearing all of your personal protective equipment (PPE) and something goes wrong? What if the stuck elevator call is because there is a fire in the elevator machine room? We can “what if” ourselves to death. What if you are out walking the dog on a nice evening and you notice a house on fire? Should you wear all of your PPE all of the time “just in case”? As with just about everything, the answer is probably somewhere between the two extremes.
PPE Standards
Some standards touch on this topic. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program (2013 ed.), addresses this issue in several sections, even though a number of firefighters express reservations about the practicality of NFPA standards in general. NFPA 1500 states that a member who is “exposed to the hazards of structural firefighting shall be provided with and shall use a protective ensemble that shall meet the applicable requirements of NFPA 1971-2013 ….” NFPA 1971, Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, does not necessarily address hazards other than structural and proximity firefighting, although it does speak to requirements for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear warfare.
There are separate NFPA standards for PPE for wildland firefighting, technical rescue incidents, and emergency medical operations. Understand that just because a piece of PPE meets one or two of these standards doesn’t necessarily mean it meets all of them. However, by default, some types of PPE provide additional protection that may not be their primary function–for example, a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) facemask designed for respiratory protection that also protects the face and eyes against other hazards. NFPA 1500 further discusses the use of respiratory protection when firefighters are “ࢀ¦ in a hazardous atmosphere.” If you must make decisions on when and where firefighters must wear PPE, it is useful to peruse these standards, along with the documentation that comes with the PPE when you purchase it.
Control Zones
In section 8.6, NFPA 1500 also discusses establishing hazard control zones at an incident (much like haz-mat incidents using hot/warm/cold) to identify the level of risk and the appropriate level of PPE for each. The incident commander (IC) is responsible for designating the perimeters of the zones, and the standard recommends that the zones be marked with tape, signage, or some similar mechanism.
Hot zone: The hot zone presents the highest level of risk and is often classified as an immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH) atmosphere. Often at a structure fire the hot zone makes sense and is easily identified as “inside” the structure where you should wear full PPE (including helmet, protective hood/flaps, SCBA, coat, gloves, pants, and boots).
Warm zone: The warm zone is a support area where significant risk may still exist but the level of hazard is reduced. At a structure fire, this may be defined as inside the hoseline or the area in which only emergency responders–not the general public–are permitted. In this area, you may not need respiratory protection, but hazards to the head (falling or swinging objects), hands (needing to carry or grab something), and feet (dropping a heavy object or stepping on a nail) will likely require that you wear at a minimum helmets, gloves, and fire boots.
Cold zone: The cold zone is a public area where there is minimal risk of injury or exposure; rehab may best be located in the cold zone.
Officers and members must ensure that personnel wear appropriate PPE in the appropriate zone.
Selecting PPE
When considering what PPE to wear in which situations, keep the following in mind about your gear.
Helmet: It is designed to protect the head against falling/swinging/ penetrating objects. This includes protective earflaps that protect the ear area/side of the head against heat. It can also protect against cold weather, although that is not the primary reason to wear your helmet. Protective hoods are an accessory to the helmet that can enclose the entire head/neck/chin area to protect against heat.
Eye/face protection: This is usually incorporated in the helmet. It may be a “face shield” arrangement that provides protection to the face, much like that on a hockey player’s helmet, but it does not fully meet the standards for eye protection. Newer helmets have better eye protection built in.
If there is no shield arrangement on the helmet, then wear separate safety glasses to protect your eyes from penetrating injuries. Carefully evaluate safety glasses before buying en masse to ensure that they will operate well with minimum fogging in environments that you normally work in.
If there is a splash hazard, whether chemical or body fluids, wear goggles or other splash protection. You don’t want anything to get in your eyes or mouth.
The SCBA facemask essentially provides the best eye and face protection you can get, protecting not only from penetrating and splash hazards but also irritating vapors. If you need to wear respiratory protection on the emergency scene, your mask is also protecting your eyes, face, and mouth.
Gloves: Understand that one glove doesn’t protect against all hazards. There are fire/heat hazards, various sharp objects that can cut or penetrate, chemical hazards (your hands are often the most likely to come in contact with chemicals), and biological hazards (also most likely to come in contact with your hands).
Wear structural firefighting gloves when fire/heat hazards are present. At structural fires, items such as broken glass are likely present; wear gloves for protection. While dexterity is important, protection against fire/heat is more important.
Extrication work presents somewhat different hazards. There is much less of a fire hazard but more of a hazard of sharp metal, bloodborne pathogens, and perhaps some “normal” vehicle fluids. Dexterity can be more important in extrication vs. firefighting.
Specialized structural and extrication gloves are not cheap. Once the fire is extinguished or extrication is completed, you still need hand protection but not necessarily to the level required during fire and rescue work. Perhaps you are picking up hose or other equipment; risks still exist to the hands including cuts and abrasions. In this case, where you do not anticipate exposure to hazardous fluids, you can wear standard work gloves.
Coat: A firefighter’s coat is intended to provide protection against fire and heat and shed water or other fluids. It can also provide minimum protection against some other hazards including sharp objects and burning embers and material. While not perfect in these aspects, it does perform admirably. The work shirt or T-shirt likely worn underneath it provides little to no protection against any of these hazards. If these hazards are present, wear the coat.
Pants/boots: Firefighters’ bunker pants provide protection similar to the coat. The same issues found with the coat also apply to pants/boots. Boots afford additional protection against liquids, sharp objects puncturing the foot, and toe protection against items being dropped onto the foot. When these hazards present themselves, wear pants/boots. It is recognized that during certain investigations that don’t involve fire, the use of pants/boots may not have a significant impact on the safety of responders. Officers may consider providing safety shoes for firefighters who respond often to “shoe runs” with shoes that have some protection against fluids and sharp objects as well as toe protection.
Firefighters often have no option other than either pants/boots or going barefoot. Unless your station floor is “clean enough to eat off of,” walking barefoot in that area places firefighters at risk for a foot laceration, splinter, or worse.
The key is to understand when these risks are present and which types of gear can protect you against each risk. Each piece of gear has specific limitations, but if the hazard is present, gear can only protect you if you wear it.
Although this is not necessarily a full list of hazards and protection, this article should help you better understand what you should wear and why you should wear it. Often the argument is that “it won’t kill me.” Sure, maybe not now–but later? And what about a disabling injury or even an injury that stops you from doing what you like to do for a period of time or even the rest of your life?
PPE Removal
Just as it is important to understand when to wear which type of PPE, one of the big questions personnel ask when operating at a working incident is, “When can we take our PPE off?”
Most turnout gear is warm or hot to wear and restricts motion and, in many cases, one or more senses. Once the incident is under control, it is time for the IC/operations chief/safety officer to take a step back and reevaluate the hazards on the scene to determine if the “zones” should be contained further or reduced and what PPE should be worn where. There is risk in everything we do, and the job of the officer/safety officer is to minimize those risks. Keep the following in mind about the gear.
Helmets: Remove helmets only when there is not a significant risk from falling or swinging objects. Helmets also provide identification of firefighters and officers at an emergency scene, so keep this in mind.
Eye protection: If the potential exists for something to get into the eye, whether a solid or a liquid, wear appropriate eye protection. Carry a pair of lightweight, comfortable safety glasses in your gear for these situations.
Hand protection: It is fair to say that hand protection (gloves) can be applicable at almost any point on the incident scene. It can prove useful to provide firefighters with a pair of work gloves that they can change into to clean up with after the fire is extinguished/rescues are completed. They are more comfortable to wear and can reduce wear and tear on the more expensive structural and extrication gloves.
Respiratory protection: If there is something bad on the scene to breath, or the possibility of needing to enter the hot zone exists (rapid intervention team assignment, working on the roof, etc.), and the hazard cannot be identified in any way, wear SCBA. I have heard all the arguments and have worn SCBA on the roof and many other locations without a problem, and I believe it is important to wear SCBA in or on top of the hot zone
Coats: Coats are usually the first piece of PPE personnel want to remove, particularly when it is warm or hot out. If there is no fire, and the potential for injury to the torso and arm area is significantly reduced, the IC/safety officer can consider allowing members to remove their coats.
Pants/boots: Often it isn’t easy to remove the pants, as they are integral to the boots and there may be nothing else to change into. It would be a rare situation where you can remove boots, but you can remove pants with the same consideration for removing coats.
Protect Against Risk
Remember: At a car fire, an explosion can occur from various causes during the fire attack, so full PPE makes sense. When operating on a roof, there is the potential of a collapse or a firefighter could fall through, so full PPE makes sense. On an EMS call, blood can come in contact with hands or be splashed in the eye, so gloves and some type of eye protection make sense. Take the time to research the Near-Miss Web site (http://fire.nationalnearmiss.org), other fire Web sites, and periodicals for incident reviews and critiques to better understand the risks on the fireground.
It’s Ultimately the Supervisor’s Call
What does all of this mean? It is incumbent on fire departments to provide members with protective clothing and equipment that will allow them to perform their job safely. It is also incumbent for fireground officers to continue to assess the risk to personnel at a scene and select the appropriate protection to the risk. It may not be easy for the people performing the job to properly assess the risk of the environment around them, and the tendency is to remove PPE as quickly as feasible on the incident scene when it appears it is not needed. But making that decision is the job of the supervisor and the safety officer.
I still regret a situation many years ago where my firefighters were working smoke/search and rescue drills at an acquired residential structure slated for demolition. The building did exhibit signs of deterioration of several components. We were in the process of cleaning up and securing the building, and firefighters had generally doffed their PPE, as it was a warm day. The process of closing a window caused the glass in the sash to shatter, requiring a young firefighter to get numerous stiches in his hand. He recovered from this fine, but my lack of enforcement of wearing gloves during that phase of operations caused him a lot of pain and trouble, not to mention a lasting scar. He was fortunate to barely miss the tendon that controlled use of his thumb.
The lesson? Ongoing risk assessment and PPE enforcement, even in the final throes of an incident, are important to reduce risk to your personnel.
What makes common sense? Can we bring sanity to the insanity? When responding to higher risk situations, a higher level of protection is needed. At lower risk situations, a lower level of protection may be appropriate. What makes sense to you?
