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Permalink Reply by Dustin J. Millis on September 23, 2009 at 4:51am

I, Like you, had never heard of the filter up until a few weeks ago while shopping on thefirestore.com. Looks pretty cool and I like how they have made different styles for all the major air mask models. I just wish they wern't so expensive.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Brooks on September 23, 2009 at 4:00pm

Not new and not recommended. Unless you have an oxygen sufficient environment, this will not work.

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Permalink Reply by Oldman on September 23, 2009 at 4:51pm

They are what they say they are... Last Chance. They can allow one to escape from situations in a fire if there was a failure to watch air consumption or a failure of the SCBA. We have them on all our air packs and have have trained in their use.

A neighboring department did a study of them complete with blood analysis including arterial blood gas testing in a burn building with many different types of fuels and materials. They also have equipped all 200+ packs with them. I have a copy of their results somewhere in the mounds of papers on my desk, when I find it I'll post it for the group.

They take a little getting used to being able to breath in them and they are are an inconvenience in tight places. They are made to fit most all masks with removable regulators, and with training, are fairly easy to don.

I personally prefer to watch my air consumption and we train constantly with our air packs. We stress not going so deep into a situation where you will not have enough air to come back out.

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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on September 24, 2009 at 2:56am

That will be interesting to see the results of that experiement.

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on September 24, 2009 at 4:42pm

I have seen them before and like Brooks mentioned, there needs to be some O2 present for them to work. The ONLY issue I see with such things is that training will be paramount and to ensure everyone is most definately absolutely aware this is the absolute last resort. Otherwise it is easy to have a mentality that I don't have to start leaving when my low air alarm goes off, I have this backup.

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Permalink Reply by Oldman on September 24, 2009 at 5:27pm

Otherwise it is easy to have a mentality that I don't have to start leaving when my low air alarm goes off

Did it start going off as you were exiting the hazard area? If you wait until your low air alarm is going off, you have waited too long. Situational awareness and knowing how much air you have left is what we teach our people.

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on September 24, 2009 at 6:08pm

True it is about situational awareness and even waiting for the low air alarm is too late, especially if it took awhile to get to the destination.

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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on September 24, 2009 at 8:45pm

Good point....not letting ourselves get comfortable with something that's a last ditch effort.

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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on October 19, 2009 at 12:13pm

yes, an old Captain of mine had one for his Scott SCBA and no one can ever deny that it is very useful. I think to some younger members it may give them a false sense of security and convince them that they can stay in longer than their SCBA allows. it is a wonderful piece of equipment but we must rely on proper training as well.

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