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using a pack at a brush fire
just wondering what are the sop's in your area regarding the use of scott pack in a brush fire situation. do you take them off the engine or leave them on
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Why would you want to carry a heavy, bulky item that would protect 1/4 of your personnel? The experts (the forestry Red Card firefighters) don't wear them. That's a pretty good indication that wearing SCBA to a brush/woods fire creates more risks than the ones from which it will protect you.
Also, who gets that one SCBA if the need arises? Do you decide by rank? Seniority? Rock-Paper-Scissors?
Just wondering...
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Permalink Reply by D.MAN on
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we dont even have them on our 2 brush units.if you have to move fast you dont need them to slow you down.i have never seen anyone with one on.
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Permalink Reply by Robert on
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I have never used or seen anyone else use a pack a a brush fire. Although if the fire starts getting near structures we have a couple guys pack up just incase.
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Permalink Reply by Ed Dean on
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Our brush tends to be low and quick moving. We don't wear packs on brush fires unless the fire is threatening to interface with buildings - at which time the team protecting the building wears their SCBA's, has municipal water supply, and back-up. Movement through the brush with an airpack would be difficult and dangerous, in my opinion. The ability to move quickly is more important than a mobile fresh air supply.
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Permalink Reply by shawn on
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my companies sops do not have an airpack stated for a brush fire. We use minimal gear for greater mobility and less strain on ones body if we call other companies for assistance and some of their firefighters are wearing full turnout gear they usually stay at the command area for support turnout gear usually in my experience (19 years) has just weighed the person down and sent them to rehab much too quickly to be useful. All we wear is a long sleeve cotton shirt and bluejeans or forestry pants leather boots 12 inches or higher and a hardhat or helmet. If the smoke gets to overwhelming you shouldnt be there just pull out and head upwind thats where you need to be anyway. If a structure does get involved then it falls into a different situation and the crews dealing with that part of the fire will have packs on.
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Permalink Reply by TexasFire on
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In my old volunteer department, we used to have 2 airpacks with masks on the newer boosters or brush trucks. I wore them to grass fires and I have no problem saying it. The way I see it, if I feel safer with it wear it...you can always take it off.
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Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on
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fighting fires in the Tn mountains I would think if you need an airpack you better be grabbing for your fire shelter instead
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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Engine and SCBA at a Brush Fire? Whats that? What happened to hand tools, backpack pumps and cold trailing on your hands and knees?
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Permalink Reply by lang on
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indian pack+your suplies+hand tools + pack= too much weight. if you need a pack you shouldn't be there. packs just slow you down if you want clean air get one of the respirators to wear. you go out for a shift on a big fire with lots of brush digging a fire line you'll be like what the hell was i thinking grabbing a pack. i don't have a lot of expreince with wildland i will say that right now. i did a fire line about a mile long and i was beat. my instructors had worked the big fires out in the midwest and they had the little respirators if anything. if you want the pack by all means grab it but your gonna suck it down so fast that it really won't do anything for you just slow you down by having it.
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Permalink Reply by BRANDON BAATZ on
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I have been a firefighter for a little over three years now and have been on several brush/field fires. Our dept leaves that to firefighter discretion. With the cancer rate in firefighters going up every year, I made a personal choice to wear one if I will be in the smoke at all. After I returned home from my first few brush fires I would always blow my nose because my allergies would be acting up. When I would blow my nose I noticed large amounts of black particles in my mucus. I thought to my self, the mucus is doing its job but I am sure it is not stopping all of that crap from going into my lungs. That stuff going into my lungs could shorten my life or cause some kind of cancer, so I made a personal choice to pack up if I am in the smoke at all. It is not worth it to me for a brush fire. Any smoke coming from a fire is very bad for your health. If you would ask some of the older retired firefighters that used to be smoke eaters and now have some kind of COPD or lung cancer they will tell you that if they could go back in time and change how they did things and pack up everytime no matter if it was light smoke or not they would! I just think it is important to keep that crap out of your lungs no matter what kind of call you are on. Even if everyone says you do not need to pack up, this stuff won't hurt you! Bull! It will. Use your own common sense and judgement. Your health and safety is number one!
BE SAFE BROTHERS!
BRANDON #73
www.nhatfireems.com
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True 'dat, brother. Unfortunately, lugging that extra 30 lbs into the boonies is going to potentially shorten your life due to a) carrying all that extra weight when heat stressed and b) running out of air when you're in smoke and a long way from the road and a cylinder change.
Brush/woods/grass fires generally outlast your air supply, so you'll be breathing smoke anyway. Then you have to lug the empty SCBA back to the rig...maybe while walking through that same smoke.
The good news is that most wildland smoke is fairly clean Class A smoke, compared to the nasty chemicals we find in plastics, pressure-treated wood, the chemicals beneath Mrs. Smith's sink, etc.
Breathing it isn't a great option, but it's unfortunately probably the least of a wide range of evils on this one.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Capps on
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We dont use scbas because we are always required to wear a line pack with a fire shelter on it. A scba would be to dangoures to wear in a shelter.When you are trying to catch a grass fire a 35 pound pack is plenty of weight a air tank would just slow you down and fatigue you way to much.
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