So I'm in a bit of a conundrum.....I need your help. My department is having a helmet issue, and we need to try to get it fixed. We are currently wearing the Traditional Composite from Paul Conway/Lion. For those of you that don't know, it's the heaviest helmet on the market (even heavier than leather). We have had them for several years and most of do not like them. The decision was hastily made by a few firefighters a number of years back that they would pay for the helmets because they "looked cool, and everyone else has them". No research was done, and now several years later, we are stuck with them. What I need is to know if anybody did any helmet studies and produced a document on them to support not making the switch, or making the switch back to a lighter, newer style of helmet. My personal favorite is the Bullard LTX with goggles. Lightweight, and yet still functional. The traditional helmets are too large for car wrecks, and to heavy to wear for any length of time without experiencing neck issues. Can anyone help me with this? I would like other departments' information to help support mine in the battle..........................Thank you brothers.............
Pretty much most of Southern California uses the lighter, newer style of helmet with the goggles attached. Large helmets with huge shields are not very functional as you pointed out. I can't for the life of me figure out what folks see in the large helmet shields. It just looks to garish to me.
gar·ish
[gair-ish]
–adjective
1. crudely or tastelessly colorful, showy, or elaborate, as clothes or decoration.
2. excessively ornate or elaborate, as buildings or writings.
3. dressed in or ornamented with bright colors.
With all the departments I have been on we are issued all of our equipment but with approval from the chief and as long as it meets NFPA or OSHA we are allowed to either buy or split the cost of other equipment so that we are comfortable.
For instance you had firefighters that liked your helmets now but you personally do not. So our chief would allow us to either buy a helmet of lesser or equal price to what the department uses or if you wanted say a leather the department paid for the cost of a plastic and you covered the rest of your pocket out of clothing allowance or your own pocket and then when you leave the department you paid the rest of the cost so that you could keep your helmet or other equipment if desired.