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Black turn outs and safety
What color of turnouts do you use and why. I can't imagine using black because if I go down in a fire, It will be harder to find in black.Yes , I get you have the pass device but sometimes hearing where the sound is coming from in the comotion is hard.I prefer the normal tan color.I clean mine after every fire.Be safe and God Bless all of you.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mick Shelley on
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We use Gold, some may call it yellow
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Cole on
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Real quick. I didn't go through all the hundreds of replies. It's not about "looking cool" at all. First of all, Black fabric shows degradation alot easier than other colors. It shows when the fabric has been compromised and needs to be evaluated for replacement. Secondly, it is obviously alot easier to keep clean. Light colored fabrics in companies that see work end up a mess in no time.
It's not a visibility problem at all.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Jeff, I disagree with all three of your points...
Black is not the easiest to keep clean. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Black hides contamination much more than does any other color. Black is just better at hiding how much bad stuff that it's absorbed than other colors of turnout gear fabric.
Lighter colors show degradation just as well - most of the natural tan aramid fabrics turn a reddish hue of they've been exposed to high levels of heat. The bright colors like red and yellow and eve white are generally only available in Nomex, which easily shows shrinkage, char, or brittleness when it's been heat stressed.
Visibility is involved, especially in daylight. Remember, we're not just wearing our turnouts in heavy smoke or other zero viz places. We often work wrecks, car fires, dumpster fires, and other outside incidents in daylight. Wearing brighter colors does indeed help you show up better in those conditions.
Ben
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Permalink Reply by Fire Capt. 1304 on
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I have worn both black and tan Globe g extreme and in my opinion did not notice a difference with heat. I will agree that black hides the bad stuff better, but in reality gear should be cleaned often anyways. Also color should'nt have much to do with visibility at such calls where traffic is a factor, because we should be wearing the NFPA required safety vests anyways. I belive it is more personal preference than anything and I prefer the tan over the black.
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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on
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We wear black gear and i haven't noticed a difference in heat. In a fire, hot is hot! As far as finding another member in a firefighter down scenario, if the smoke is light enough for me to distinguish the color of his/her gear than conditions aren't as bad as I thought they were. They biggest advantage to wearing black gear is the fact that heat damage shows up on the black gear more obvious than other colors because of the dye. When you can see that a set of gear has sustained considerable heat damage, you kow to take it out of service. Whereas, with lighter colored gear, the heat damage will go unnoticed until a member suffers because the gear should have been out of service months ago. I know that many FF's here prefer lighter colored gear, but i believe that the real preference should go into the type and features of the gear, not the color. It was not my intent to offend anyone.
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Permalink Reply by Dewayne and Diana Bean on
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Interesting Comments! Wow we wear the tan at GFD.
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Permalink Reply by Scott on
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I gotta say out of personal preference of wearing black and tan, I would take tan with orange reflects over the black mainly for the safety even though I am sticking with my trusty black helmet
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Permalink Reply by EngineLadder on
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who cares if it hides dirt if you are in a dept that dose work in a regular basis even with 2 sets of turns outs you dont have time was your gear after every fire
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Permalink Reply by Cory on
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I've got both black and tan Morning Pride gear at 2 different dept.s to me I can't tell a difference in the temp. I live in northern Indiana, so we get temps up to 100 with high humidity and below 0 with wind chill. No matter what color your gear is, if the smoke is that bad the first thing you are going to see if anything is the reflective striping.
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