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Why don't we copy the French Fire Helmet Designs?
One of the coolest things I have ever received in the mail, ever... arrived at my house a couple of days ago. It was from one of the friends I made here on the FFN, and he is from France, where he works as a professional firefighter. Like many firefighters, we both like fire service related things and are involved with trading things back and forth. What amazed me however, was the functional design that I saw first hand.
Up to this point, I have only seen photographs of french firefighters wearing a very unfamiliar fire helmet style. To be honest, I blew off the design because they just did not look like fire helmets. After having the chance to actually wear one, I offer the following insight for those, like myself, who never have had the chance to see what our brothers and sisters across the Atlantic wear for head and face protection.
The world just keeps getting smaller... I invite everyone to take the time to get to know others around the world with the spirit of sharing and providing the most up to date training and response information available. We are not alone, we have each other.
Prenez garde à rester en sécurité, (TCSS)
CBz
The Casque Pompier (Fire Helmet):
Built in Safety Goggles:
Fire Helmet Protective Visor / Heat Shield:
View Through Fire Helmet Protective Visor / Heat Shield:
Fire Helmet Heat Shield:
05-25-2010 Update: I made direct contact today with MSA and spoke with one of two sales reps that have knowledge of the French Gallet F1-SF Firefighter Helmet. Here's what I learned:
• These "French" fire helmets are manufactured by MSA, which is 100% USA owned and is based internationally out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• MSA bought out the french company Gallet 7-8 years ago, which included this helmet design and manufacturing rights.
• Existing USA style fire helmets are rated to no more than 1500˚F, while this particular style is rated to 1800˚F. Why more? The same technology used by NASA for astronaut helmets visors are incorporated into this design. Both the helmet and face shield reflect the heat, keeping the interior of the helmet cool, with maximum interior helmet temperatures reaching around 95˚F.
• The existing F1-SF helmet does not meet NA standards as mentioned in one of the posts. However, there is such a demand now for this style that MSA is working on providing a NA approved helmet that has the same features but also possesses the necessary impact standards.
• What we are looking at is a glimpse of what the 21st century firefighters are going to be wearing, internationally...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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Before my time but...I bet that the same comments were made about changing from the 3/4 boots and canvas coats. And the firemen that actually thought SCBA was for wussies! Yeah, tradition dies hard...but not as hard as firemen die, unfortunately.
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55...
What's french? The helmets? Really? Funny, they're made by an Amurican company, ain't that all it takes to be good enough for y'all?
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Permalink Reply by Garrett Gee on
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We're not seeing fireman die from thermal burns as often or from impacts as often as we used to, so our current gear is working the way it's supposed to. We're seeing fire fighters die from heart attacks and driving incidents more than anything else.
49 out of 90 deaths (54%) are cardiac/stress or medically related. According to NFPA
11 out of 90 deaths (12%) are vehicle related. According to NFA
3 out of 90 deaths (3.3%) are smoke related
So even if all of the remaining fatalities are caused by head injury or burns(which is not the case) they only ad up to 31% of all fire fighter fatalities. Not even close to a comparison. As I said previously, I feel more than confident in my PPE to get me into and out of incident.
The NFPA doesn't distinguish between deaths caused by burns, entanglements or what kind of impact injuries. The NFA doesn't put out a chart.
This doesn't change the fact the I'm a traditionalist with many things in the fire service. I'm not sold that these helmets are better and definitely not sold on them being more cost effective for our needs.
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The numbers were from 2010.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Just out of curiosity, how do you either rule in or rule out helmets being related to the cardiac causes, virtually all of which are secondary to heat stress?
The reason I'm asking is that the head is a big part of both absorbing heat and shedding it, and that helmet design along with the fire environment may contribute to those causes more than might be currently realized.
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I don't think that's applicable in this case, since there were at least two similar U.S. designs back in the 1970's. (See my Bell/Toptex and FS-2 posts elsewhere in this thread for photos and descriptions)
They didn't last due to not being as safe or as functional as the traditional designs.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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And how was the concept of being safer defined and quantified?
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Permalink Reply by Alan McGuigan on
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I have a Gallet helmet in my collection of helmets and agree that there are some advantages to it but there are also advantages to our “traditional” North American helmet. I guess one would have to see proper evaluations results comparing fit form and function of each and then one could make an educated decision as to which helmet would best serve the fire service
As for me well I am a hard sell there is a lot to say for tradition. I agree if we hadn’t looked outside the box we would still have steam driven pumps pulled by horses or maybe still fighting fires in the traditional way and not practicing PPV ( I am sure lots of you can recall the interesting discussion on this topic recently) or using foam.
However there is a lot to say about tradition it defines who we are, where we can from and it pulls us together. Tell a US (Marine) or Canadian solder he’s now going to wear a uniform with colors and styles from another country? And see what he says even if it does have some small advantages
I have a leather Sam Houston helmet I wear (bourkes shield and ES goggles) sure its heavy but I wouldn’t wear anything else but I wear it with pride and I wear it because of tradition. You can tell a lot about a person by what they wear and i think the North American traditional firefighter helmets tells a very long and proud story and represents who we are . Just take a look at any picture ( especially 911 pictures) of a firefighter wearing his helmet and you will see Pride Honour Courage Dedication Brotherhood.
When it comes to operational stuff I am all for looking outside the box trying new things but don’t touch my helmet !!!
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Most of the evidence was qualitative. There was some qualitative research on force transmittal from falling objects, but that data probably went away with those two helmet designs.
The plastic shells cracked upon even slight impacts after being heated, the suspension systems allowed excessive force to be transmitted from a falling object to the wearer, and the larger shell didn't allow for heat shedding from the head nearly as well as the traditional designs.
I wore a couple of FS-2's in the 1970's, and from experience, it's not a good feeling to have the shells crack while they're on your head in a fire building.
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Permalink Reply by 55 TRUCK on
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Perhaps there is a department somewhere in the US that does use this
or a similar helmet? After all there are many styles in use. The two main
ones being West coast & East coast. Why are these two styles so diffrent?
Why did for example, LA city. choose the style they did? Why does Pittsburgh
use traditional but Philly uses a west cost style?
Here is a thought, why don't the French or English,etc. Use 1010,Houstons,
NewYorkers, etc?
At this very moment across the Pond some Firemen could be talking about
our helmets.
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Considering you have and still use this helmet design, have you experienced heat stress issues with the full head enclosure style verses USA helmets that afford no side protection?
I am under the impression that the reflective quality of the helmet was designed to reflect heat, minimizing the temperature inside the helmet.
Your thoughts here would be very much appreciated to clear up these questions.
CBz
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Considering you have and still use this helmet design, have you experienced heat stress issues with the full head enclosure style verses USA helmets that afford no side protection?
I am under the impression that the reflective quality of the helmet was designed to reflect heat, minimizing the temperature inside the helmet.
Your thoughts here would be very much appreciated to clear up these questions.
CBz
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