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P.A.S.S. failures.
I was reading through a bunch of NIOSH reports today and was surprised by how many PASS devices were not working when downed FFs were found. Comments?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Reg Mathis on
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My first question would be how many of them WERE working prior to the FF going down and were subsequently damaged/destroyed by heat?
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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There have been some well-documented PASS failures at high temperatures from a variety of manufacturers.
These can affect both stand-alone and integrated PASS.
The explanation that I saw was that if the temperature gets too high, the batteries boil over and the PASS fails due to a lack of power.
The speaker can also fail from high temps or from immersion in water. If there is enough water collected where the firefighter goes down, the water can disable the PASS. PASS are designed to operate when wet, but not when submerged.
Lastly, the batteries can just be dead when the SCBA is donned. Some firefighters may well have contributed to their own deaths by donning SCBA with inoperable PASS.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Gemberling on
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Most of the reports stated the PASS was working prior to the incident. A couple stated the PASS was working during the investigation period. I will try to dig those up again.
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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on
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I don't know about other's PASS systems, but on ours (SCOTT) you hear the beep of the PASS when you open the bottle. We were taught, if you don't hear it, grab another pack. It's worth the split second it takes to listen for it.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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I've never heard of a 'DSU', as they're known in some countries, failing. Which means only that I've never heard of it, not that it doesn't happen! We have to turn ours on as part of our routine, and that sets off the low sound as you pass the switch through 'Manual'. We are told that they are suppposed to set off if the temperature gets too high, though we're not told what 'too high' is.
My first thoughts were that the units may well have not been activated. We can read a lot online about them not being turned on, being left on when the set is removed and so going off but being ignored by all around. Did the reports read indicate whether the units were still functional? Whether they were activated when found?
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Permalink Reply by Brendan O'Keefe on
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The new msa's have the sound to(RINGGGG beeeEEP BEE deet.) i havent heard of much failure with the new ones. i have heard that batterys have been dying very often in the next gen. scotts.
also. from listening to many of the "older" ff's in my hall. they never turned on the old belt or sholder mounted stand alone pass alarms(because they were annoying?) doesnt sound good.
but i really like the new intergreted pass alarms.
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Some of the reports indicated that the PASS was in working order after the incident. Others stated the PASS was non-operable.
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