Hello all me and some of the guys at the station, where cleaning the station up when we found some old hip boots from like the 80's. and I was just wondering if any fire dept's out in this great country of our's is still old school. With the 3/4 boots and trench coats ?

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When i First joined my department gave me a trench coat and rubber hip boots i was like okay so are we fighting fires or going to fish for trout in alaska
they just laughed and gave me my brand new set of globe gear
Let's see does this fall under the category of Stupid Is As Stupid Does? or ROFLMAO. And to think I paid $6.00 to see that in the theater.
That's an amazingly awesome picture Craig. It's great to see things like that and the fact that people still keep them as a memento. Kudos to you!
I would have to agree with you Tim. It's much harder to be aware of your surrounding environment, such as the heat when you're covered up as much as we are nowadays. Back then you would HAVE to be more cognizant because the guys inside wouldn't be able to stand the heat as much as today. That, I think, is a plus as now we're seeing more injuries due to heat exhaustion, and burn overs as we're not fully able to comprehend how much heat we're experiencing. I'm not an "older" guy by any means, but I am an old soul and have been brought up with an old school way of thinking in my life so I tend to look at and appreciate the past endeavors of others. The problem with "then and now" scenarios is the fact that it's not only the gear and thinking that's changed. It's the materials and essentially the fires that have changed as well.

While we use to have around 15mins to get out of a burning house (as a victim) we now only have on average 2mins or less. For those of you not familiar with this video of a dry Christmas tree flashover, watch it, it's pretty amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_eHBqVYa8A.

So our thinking and our gear had to change. But I do agree with vent early and vent often techniques, that we need to use more often. I think IC's are starting to concern themselves more with the protecting property and not wanting to cut the roof or blow out a window, but if we don't do these venting techniques then we're putting ourselves at risk and there's your risk/benefit analysis right there. I think we need to combine this old way of thinking with the new way of thinking and that might help us work on that "perfect system" you're talking about with gear. Look at the Aussie's how their gear is thinner than that of North American gear. Mind you it is hotter down there than it is up here in Canada, but still, if we went to a thinner style, you think we'd start venting more to let that heat escape? Not to mention PPV is becoming more and more prevalent in the fire industry which I think is great. Sorry this was so long guys. That's my rant about this topic!
I doubt it.
oh Greg, was your mama an English Teacher?

My grandmother was an English and Latin teacher - and she use to say things like that all the time to me.
I have a pair of my own. I wear them with my wildland gear, that way I don't have to keep swapping out my regular boots. I have used them for the annual MDA "Fill the Boot" drive. You should see people's faces when you ask them to fill the boot and then you go and extend to the full length of the boot !!
No but she insisted on well spoken English. She was also really nice, I don't know what happened to me.
I know that up until a few years ago Chicago did indeed have the choice of wearing them or not. Same with hoods. I thought I heard San Fransisco uses them yet. Is that true?
Here in Chicagoland, the Chicago F.D. made the change (finally) to bunker coats and pants. I beleive they no longer have the option to choose between bunker gear or 3/4 boots, in this day and age of NFPA compliance. My F.D. hasn't worn 3/4 boots since the early 80's.
They don't. They use black bunkers, pants and coats. They do however still use leather helmets if I recall correctly. If you want to see them in action, check this out www.thebattalion.tv. Its pretty cool, I've seen alot of them

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