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Why don't we copy the French Fire Helmet Designs?
One of the coolest things I have ever received in the mail, ever... arrived at my house a couple of days ago. It was from one of the friends I made here on the FFN, and he is from France, where he works as a professional firefighter. Like many firefighters, we both like fire service related things and are involved with trading things back and forth. What amazed me however, was the functional design that I saw first hand.
Up to this point, I have only seen photographs of french firefighters wearing a very unfamiliar fire helmet style. To be honest, I blew off the design because they just did not look like fire helmets. After having the chance to actually wear one, I offer the following insight for those, like myself, who never have had the chance to see what our brothers and sisters across the Atlantic wear for head and face protection.
The world just keeps getting smaller... I invite everyone to take the time to get to know others around the world with the spirit of sharing and providing the most up to date training and response information available. We are not alone, we have each other.
Prenez garde à rester en sécurité, (TCSS)
CBz
The Casque Pompier (Fire Helmet):
Built in Safety Goggles:
Fire Helmet Protective Visor / Heat Shield:
View Through Fire Helmet Protective Visor / Heat Shield:
Fire Helmet Heat Shield:
05-25-2010 Update: I made direct contact today with MSA and spoke with one of two sales reps that have knowledge of the French Gallet F1-SF Firefighter Helmet. Here's what I learned:
• These "French" fire helmets are manufactured by MSA, which is 100% USA owned and is based internationally out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• MSA bought out the french company Gallet 7-8 years ago, which included this helmet design and manufacturing rights.
• Existing USA style fire helmets are rated to no more than 1500˚F, while this particular style is rated to 1800˚F. Why more? The same technology used by NASA for astronaut helmets visors are incorporated into this design. Both the helmet and face shield reflect the heat, keeping the interior of the helmet cool, with maximum interior helmet temperatures reaching around 95˚F.
• The existing F1-SF helmet does not meet NA standards as mentioned in one of the posts. However, there is such a demand now for this style that MSA is working on providing a NA approved helmet that has the same features but also possesses the necessary impact standards.
• What we are looking at is a glimpse of what the 21st century firefighters are going to be wearing, internationally...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Thomas, that statement has two things wrong with it...
a) it is completely arrogant
b) is is demonstrably untrue - otherwise, why would Toyota be the #1 selling auto brand in the U.S.???
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Permalink Reply by ffemt19 on
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Jason,
I'm glad u like the helmet a little bit. LOL
We over here in Europe are maybe not as aggressive as u american firefighters but shure do the same job, on almost the same way.
We also do interior attack, we also darken our helmets in fire LOL.
But i have to say that over there in the states u are more aggressive. But is that always good???
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This is a French company who built the helmet for the french militairy firefighters in Paris. At this moment i think a lot off euro firefighters wear this style of helmet from MSA or Drager our other manufactorers.
Before this very modern style helmet most euro helmets where the same type as thouse u in the states still wear.
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That is why we use build in communication.
That is way we use different helmets for different tasks.
Structural helmet for fires (structural, industrial, ...)
Rescue helmets for rescue and forest fires.
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Permalink Reply by Russ on
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"other than tradition" and the fact that i like my leather, this appears to be a sound design but i'd like to see how it interfaces with our current type of SCBA's. and try it for myself. Federal came out with a helmet in the 70's it looked like a german SS helmet and while it caught on in some departments, i remember seeing lots of them on actors in buck rogers and the other TV space shows in the late 70's and 80's. what did the sign on the wall in backdraft say? "200 years of tradition unimpeaded by progress". i'd give it a try but it needs some type of frontpiece..."ya gotta keep some leather"
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good one sean but you know what the reply's gonna be...put a stack of FDNY shirts next to stack BIFE shirts and see which pile goes first. we have a lot of american honor to overcome. remember what happend when they tried to get rid of leather helmets? i see it as a case of tradition overcomming something new that we dont yet fully understand...again good post
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Green: do you think that the insurance industry would attempt to rally behind say having the NFPA or other safety orginization publicly accept the "jet" style over the traditional then telling the fire service that they would have to pay a higher premium to insure their members if they want to use any other helmet other than an jet style because of its "proven" safety/risk benifits sometime in the future?
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Permalink Reply by Sean Rogers on
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To me this looks more like a Motorcycle helmet than a firefighting helmet. The traditional American helmet is what I am used to and that is what I will continue to use until NFPA tells me different.
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Permalink Reply by Sean Davidson on
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thank you Russ i do agree with you about the legend status of as you put it the FDNY or another one of your US departments as opposed to the BIFE yes true thanks to the movies the US style of firefighting has been made popular even in South Africa the F1 style of helmet is not popular with most departments using the modern design what is refered to as the metro or the traditional design , some of our departments here such as Johannesburg Fire even switched to the North American ranking system and Insignia while our department remained on the modified british ranking system with insignia worn on the shoulder epulettes i personally find the system of wearing a row of gold stars on the collar totally confusing i think that was adopted from the North American police ranking system but i think the best way to say it is to use which ever helmet and system works best not adopt a certain style because it is popular everywhere else
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Permalink Reply by Sune Schønnemann on
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I don't know how much a US fire helmet costs, but the MSA Gallet costs about 700USD..
We use them in Denmark, and I must say I LOVE THEM..
It's the best helmet I have EVER had on my head...
It's very comfortable, very safe and just 100% practical..
The fact that it cover SO much of the side/back of the head is just great.. It's really hard to get hurt with this thing on..
Below is me, wearing my favorite helmet..
There is one problem with the helmet, that we ALWAYS encounter during training..
At very high temperatures the helmet has a tendency to melt or even catch fire..
The bottom part of the heat shield melts, and the entire helmet can begin to bubble.. But once again, this only happens at EXTREME temperatures (where the black color in out fire suits start to disappear and the straps from SCBA start melting).. To prevent it, we use cloth helmet-covers during training..
The problem on page 13 about not being able to hear well with the helmet on is not something I have tried.. It's quite "loose" around the ears, so it's not a problem
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