PPE on Vehicle Accidents

I was just wondering what peoples thoughts/department SOG's were on wearing bunker gear, ambulance crew/fire crew, on the scene of vehicle accidents. In my department's SOG's it states "Bunker gear is required for personal injury accidents", yet there are some who refuse to wear it when they respond on the squad(ambulance) because they have reflective vests or jackets. Me personally I wear my bunker gear and a refective vest no matter what truck I respond in.

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Permalink Reply by Chad Furr on March 15, 2009 at 10:33pm

Bunker gear is all we have. Wear it or stay home it is that simple here.

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Permalink Reply by Justin Allen on April 6, 2009 at 11:53pm

our sog's say that full ppe is required on any mva. mississippi's high humidity states otherwise. humidity or not, our guys wear full ppe if they are in the "hot zone" right around the car, if the patient is already out of the vehicle we consider them to be in the "warm zone". Anyone in the warm zone has at least turnout bottoms and their helmet on and a reflective vest. outside of there we usually let them slide w/ just a reflective vest and helmet. no need to risk heatstroke on someone who's directing traffic. BUT noone, absolutely noone is on the scene w/o somekind of reflective vest or turnout jacket. if they refuse, they politely get told to get their collective hind-parts back to the house.

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Permalink Reply by Colter Effertz on April 16, 2009 at 10:39pm

LOL good call...

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Bell on April 16, 2009 at 11:51pm

our SOG states all bunker gear is to be worn.it helps to prevent injury to you. I have a captain that thought he didnt need to wear gloves on the accident scene and he cut all the tendons in his hand and that cost our insurance. there is no excuse for not wearing it.

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Permalink Reply by Cowboy on April 17, 2009 at 12:21am

I have responded on a squad with my bunker gear on. But in my department we have to wear a reflective safety traffic vest. But I think it doesn't matter that what truck you are on that if you are going to respond to an m.v.a. you should wear your bunker gear. But if your a chief of a dept. you shouldn't have to but that's only if you are an EMT or a PARAMEDIC.. But we should always wear bunker gear to an vehicle accident

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Permalink Reply by Tim Wood on April 17, 2009 at 12:43am

We all have to wear reflective vests on the roadway now. It fits over our turnout coat. Our fd supposed to all mva

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Permalink Reply by Alan Reece on April 17, 2009 at 12:57am

sogs at my dept are bunker gear plus ansi vest unless road is completly shut down

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Permalink Reply by Bob on April 25, 2009 at 5:53pm

we have the PPE designed for EMS for our EMS only personel. Our departmental rules require us to wear PPE and the ANSI vests. I feel tht no matter the time of day or night that the PPE should be worn properly.

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Permalink Reply by Cody W. Nelson on April 25, 2009 at 6:05pm

If it is serious enough to need jaws, it's serious enough for PPE. The transporting EMS service does not issue any kind of PPE so it is our SOP that the highest medical certification firefighter enter the vehicle if need be and begin ALS if necessary. We usually try to keep any persons who are not in full PPE out of the extrication area. We will bring the patient to the transporting paramedic once we have the patient extricated.

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Permalink Reply by Reg Mathis on April 25, 2009 at 6:39pm

This discussion has been going on for a while and after reading the thread the one thing I didn't see a lot of was the advising of a proper size-up as a primary factor in determining what level of PPE you or your department feel is SOP. As a vollie, I respond to 90% of my calls by POV and I usually can determine within 15 seconds of arrival what I need to don immediately.

In the past 20 years, the increase of complexity and scope of the services we are asked to provide is almost shocking. The "surprise" factor on the calls we respond to almost demands that the idea of "jump out, pack up, grab a hose and attack" be reviewed.

Just my 2 cents,

TCSS

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Permalink Reply by Lee Huff on May 27, 2009 at 1:11am

Unless it's cold out, we wear extrication suits and safety vests. In cold weather, I wear my bunker gear with my vest. Our extrication gear is also brush fire approved, and a whole lot easier to maneuver in than bunker gear, especially in hot weather.