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Permalink Reply by Jarrett Underwood on June 4, 2009 at 10:41pm

I have the clear bourke's and ess goggles (so its nfpa complient) on my leather helmet, I use a
R 3 kiwi rescue helmet for extrications so I dont ever use the goggals and and in fire I have my SCBA, the bourke's dont realy offer much pretection but I think they look pretty cool lol,... I've thought about replacing them with the smoke tinted.

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Permalink Reply by Ronald Williams II on June 4, 2009 at 10:59pm

i love my bourkes, but hate the ess goggles, so thats why i went with the cairns 1044 defender helmet, got saftey glasses that slide out of the shell of the helmet.

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Permalink Reply by Lee Kasten on June 12, 2009 at 12:16am

As a fire fighter full time and working for Paul Conway Shields, seller of thousands of helmets every year, I have seen it all as far as eye protection goes. On the leather helmets, the flips are by far the most popular. On all of the composite helmets, the faceshields and goggles are the most popular. From a fire fighter standpoint, we have goggles on our helmets, but I have removed mine. The goggles fog up the minute I put them on, if I am sweating. The 4" faceshields are heavy and require glasses to be compliant. My choice would be the flips with a good pair of safety glasses in the pocket of my gear (kept it in a protective case). I have sold a lot of the Cairns Defenders (fighter pilot shield) and as long as you don't wear glassses and drop them down slowly, they are awesome. I'm not sure if any of this helps, but they are my observations.

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Permalink Reply by Aaron Robbins on June 12, 2009 at 10:17am

thanks for your input

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Permalink Reply by Becky on June 12, 2009 at 2:42pm

My helmet came with bourkes and goggles. I took the goggles off because 1, they didn't seal very good whenever I did use them, and 2. they made my helmet balance strangely on my head. I still have the bourkes on because I was told that I have to have at least on or the other, bourkes or goggles. As far as using them, I find them to be pointless. They don't offer much eye protection, and aren't accepted as decent eye protection by the Allegheny County Fire Academy. Also, any time eye protection is needed, just wear saety glasses, it's easier. Once you go in a fire, your eye protection comes from your SCBA mask. But if you get into enough fires, like they guys at my station, you'll see that the bourkes get too dirty from the smoke and such that they become pointless. So ultimately, I keep the bourkes because I was told I have to, but they are just for show. I find no practical use for them.

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Permalink Reply by TabergFireFighter4 on July 21, 2009 at 4:55pm

There is times I like my bourkes and there is times I don't. I think they are useless interior. I don't even flip them down inside because the heat is about the same if I dont flip them down. They are mainly for looks I think. Plus after a couple fires mine are all scratched up and blackend a little bit. I don't want mine to melt though however.

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Permalink Reply by FETC on July 21, 2009 at 5:03pm

Bourkes are not NFPA eyewear therefore they are there for looks. The problem with goggles is people tend to not take the time to don them before rescue operations.

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Permalink Reply by Lee Huff on August 7, 2009 at 9:20pm

I just put a set of amber tinted bourkes on my helmet with ESS Innerzone goggles. I love 'em. Lighter in weight, and they don't foul up the flashlights I carry on my helmet (I don't rely on my Big Ed on my coat). The amber color cuts the glare, and also makes everything appear clearer, especially at MVA scenes.

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Permalink Reply by Holly on August 11, 2009 at 2:08am

My helmet came with the Bourke's. I use safety glasses the slide over my glasses. Works well for me.

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Permalink Reply by Marc Quattrocchi on August 23, 2009 at 2:34pm

When i first joined my department they had face shields really to bulky never stayed up terrible i hated em, my previous dept had goggles on the back of our helmet which flipped over they were ok , never hugged my face right were always loose when I wasnt using them really bulky always fogged up, I do have bourkes (clear) now on my 880 i have to say they are for looks although they do protect well , but 2 min in any kinda heat and you can't see thru them anymore, my dept does allow us to use these as long as we have safety glasses on underneath i keep my bourkes on and have not changed em because the only time i need eye protection is for using a saw, k-12 ,extrication ext. so my dept issued safety glasses work just fine for those applications , If im overhauling ( Nfpa "STATES" you must wear your scba mask while doing so )
so my bourkes are on for looks really it looks cool showing people what kinda crap we've been in :)

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Permalink Reply by Todd on August 25, 2009 at 1:20am

When I first started we were issued salad bowls with 6" shields. Three or four good calls and the shield was so scratched/smoked up you couldn't see out if it, so I bought a decent pair of safety glasses to use as eye protection.

My old Ben II came with the Bourkes and goggles. I never flipped the Bourkes down, and honestly would have taken them off had it not left empty holes in my helmet. As for the goggles it took about a half dozen calls before I ended up taking them off and going back to the safety glasses.

I now have a 1044 with the Defender visor. When I remember to use it instead of breaking out the old reliable safety glasses it's done a decent job. It's just so much easier for me to put on the safety glasses.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Burritt on October 21, 2009 at 2:45pm

I have bourques, but like many only because they came with it. I swear by ESS in my military occupation, and use them on the fire side too, for extrication and overhaul. The bourques really only come down when I'm working the nozzle and getting back spray in the face.

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