Beyond the Flames ‘Please Wear Your Gear and Wear It Properly’

Beyond The Flames usually features content that is aimed at those who aren’t directly involved in emergency services, attempting to help those people better understand the methods and tactics from within the fire service. This week, however, the column takes a different approach.
This column is aimed at my fellow firefighters and emergency personnel. I decided to take some time this week to address something I’ve noticed all too much recently in the fire service, something that could have dangerous consequences – the neglect of full personnel protective equipment, or PPE.
Over the last few months, I’ve seen lots of pictures and videos on various news outlets covering Cape May County with countless images of firefighters in incomplete turnout gear, not using self-contained breathing apparatus, and not using equipment properly.
These actions don’t make any sense to me. I can understand when it’s over 100 degrees outside, and firefighters are on the scene of a minor motor vehicle accident and have on reflective vests instead of full-turnout jackets – that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m referring to structure fires with no air packs, accidents with entrapment with no helmets, etc.
If your car was missing a pivotal piece of its safety system, chances are you wouldn’t want to be driving it. Why would it be any different when you put yourself at risk at emergencies, with a much greater chance of injury than your average outing?
The second chapter in the New Jersey State Firefighting textbook is about firefighter safety, and one of the first topics covered is personal protective equipment. In most cases, the second lesson covered at Firefighter I training, after the history of the fire service, is firefighter safety. If it’s stressed so heavily at fire school, why do firefighters feel they can forget it as soon as they graduate?
Turnout gear isn’t designed to be fireproof, it burns at the right temperature. But if you’ve ever looked through the line of duty death reports and the near miss reports published by the United State Fire Administration, you’ll see that you rarely see a near miss survivor who wasn’t wearing full turnout gear, while many of those killed weren’t in their complete set.
Certainly, other circumstances lead to their unfortunate fates, but the lack of a complete set of gear surely didn’t help the situation.
Each department has different standard operating procedures for the use of certain protective gear and SCBAs, and that’s perfectly acceptable. Know your SOGs and follow them. But under no circumstances should a firefighter be going into a burning building without an air pack on – whether you’re merely a firefighter, or the chief of department, which leads me to my next point.
I don’t remember seeing anywhere in my fire textbook that says senior officers in fire departments are exempt from wearing full protective gear. If these department leaders expect their firefighters to be safe on scenes, they need to lead by example. If these individuals aren’t certified to wear SCBAs, so be it.
Stay outside the structure until the fire is extinguished. Rely on the strength and communication skills of your interior firefighters.
Fully PPE isn’t an optional subject on an emergency incident. If you aren’t in it, you might as well not be on the scene in my opinion. Like the old adage, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A firefighter without full protective gear is at a much higher risk for injury than one who has it all on, and an injury to a fellow firefighter is going to further hamper the team’s efforts to help others.
I don’t really care if you disagree with every other column I write for the rest of your life, but if you get one thing from me, I hope that you’ll take this to heart: Please, wear all your gear, and wear it properly. The last column I want to write is one about a line-of duty death in Cape May County.
Knoll, 19, of Eldora, can be contacted by email at bknolljr4cmcherald@ yahoo.com. He is a student at Rowan University.