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When do you turn on air?
Get some discussion going on here. When do you turn on your air, as soon as you get off the truck and leave mask hanging or wait until you get into a condition you need to mask up and turn on air then and put on mask. Matter of personal preference? Do you have a SOP towards this?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bryce Zitterich on
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I look at the scene and let that decide. Usually, bottle is on, mask in hanging, ready to use.
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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on
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same here. Pack goes on, bottle is on, then wait. When you need it, it's just a matter of putting the facepiece on.
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Permalink Reply by Station10Capt106 on
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I turn it on as soon as I put the pack on. That way I know that it works and has a full tank (which it should if truck checks have been done right). Nothing worse than getting up near the house and finding out that something on the SCBA doesn't work and then have to trek back to the truck and change out a tank or a pack.
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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on
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In both of my departments, the accepted practice is to not go on air until you are in an enviornment or approaching an enviornment that warrants it, In other words, do not breath air until you need it.
If one puts on his/her mask before exiting the apparatus, how can he/she see clearly to do a quick but proper size up of the building and scene? We run the chance of the mask fogging and/or taking our peripheal vision away before we ever gain entry. We also run the risk of not seeing any obstacles and/or trip hazards as we are moving towards the structure.
As far as going on air outside of the IDLH, why? We need to conserve our air and that begins before we get into the IDLH. What happens if after gaining entry and making an attack, something goes terribly wrong and we get separated from our crew, search rope, etc...? Now, we need every precious PSI of good breathing air that we can muster, but we wasted some of that lifesaving air outside in the beginning of the event when it really wasn't needed.
Remember one thing, a SCBA is not designed to get you into a bad situation, it is designed to get you out of one. Every feature of whatever brand of SCBA that a Firefighter is using was designed with the idea of saving his/her life. I'm not saying breath crappy stuff into your lungs to look tough or heroic. No! Not at all! What I am saying is conserve your air and use your head.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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I also agree with Shareef here, mask up when you are going to make entry. I have seen video of a FF masked up inside a rig still responding. Works OK if you are going to get out and go right on in a fire, but I think it is better to get a clear, unfogged, view of the scene first.
As for air, I typically turn it on when getting off the rig. Preference, no SOG.
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let me clarify, I turn everything on and check it but I am not masked up and breathing until I am ready to enter the IDHL environment.
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Permalink Reply by Spanner 122 on
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If I know we are going to a confirmed structure (or car, etc) fire, I will turn the bottle on as soon as possible, usually just as we pull up on scene. It's tough to turn it on with the seatbelt done up in the rig, so as I'm getting out, the bottle is on.
Facepiece goes on as soon as is necessary.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Rocke on
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We turn ours on as soon as we put the pack on. Think of it this way. I am Chief. What if I pack up and do my 360, slip, fall, hit my head, and knock myself out. I know, far fetched, but wouldn't my pass screaming be a good idea so someone finds my clumsy ass? LOL...Just a thought
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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on
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As far as how I don, that depends. If it's an investigation with nothing showing, I hook the mask to the regulator and leave in hanging. If there's something confirmed and I know we are def. going into an IDLH, I don the mask with no regulator, that way I can don the flash hood, buckle the helmet strap, and have it all done....then when I'm ready to go on air, all I have to do is attach the regulator to the mask.
Either way, mask on or hanging....when I get off the truck I turn on the tank. As far as actually going on air...I dont' do that until I'm ready to actually enter the IDLH enviroment. I don't waste a single breath of that air while on the outside.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Burks on
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I personally turn mine on when I get it off of the truck. You never know when your going to need air and it will be one less thing to worry about when you have to mask up.
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Permalink Reply by J Whaley on
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we open valves on getting out of the cab, but don't go on air until you're just about ready to go in. We're lucky enough to have the MSA masks with hooks on the mask - so you can hang the regulator on the mask and just leave it, takes less than 1 sec to go on air, and about 1-2 to come off it (depends if it's frozen in place). No more threading on the elephant trunk to your regulator!
Recently there was a fire officer death, I believe in Sacramento, because he didn't have his mask on when they opened the door to the structure. I'd rather use a little more air than take a little more risk....and firefighter cancer rates are much higher than the background population. Complacency costs, but air is cheap.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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Turning you air on when donning the pack in the truck is a bad habit seen recently... especially for the new airpacks as the pass devices will sound while in the SCBA brackets. Very disruptive for the driver and the officer to concentrate.
Now turning on when getting off the truck? NO, if you are standing around in staging, another pain in the ass with doing the pass dance, most new packs have the speaker in the back so little johnny never knows if it is HIS pack alerting until full alarm, again disruptive, therefore they get turned on when we get assigned a task, and the mask goes on when needed before we enter the IDLH.
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