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Buddy Breathing?!?!
Is there a requirement for buddy breathing on airpacks? If so do you have to have the hoses for each pack or just one per team? Also are you requiried to have an extra air bottle or bottles for packs? I am an officer for an industrial fire brigade and we have about 35 new Scott model 75 air packs but we dont have the buddy system for them. Also we dont carry extra bottles for our packs on the truck. We do have a cascade filling station on our IC truck to fill bottles as needed We also have a two RIT packs on our trucks. I brought up getting the buddy breating systems added to our packs and the question was asked why do we need it if we have RIT systems.i also brought up the extra bottles and was told we dont need them because we ha the portable cascade system. so i guess i'm looking for any input.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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If you want to buddy breathe then yes, it does require hoses. Older packs don't have the device on them so if that is what you are using, you probably are unable to buddy breathe. You may have a quick fill attachment on the packs where you can do a quick fill and give extra air for a FF down. Not sure on having extra bottles, I don't think I ever encountered a place where there weren't spare bottles. Sounds like you may need an upgrade then if you are looking for such input. All new packs do meet the current NFPA requirements which does include buddy breathing capabilities.
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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As an industrial brigade you are not covered by the same rules as federal, city and county FF. Check your safety rules for the one that applies to you. OSHA, your state rules etc. Remember to look for industrial fire brigades.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Hatfield on
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Isint the RIT pack for when you are trapped and unable to get out ... I cant see a reason to stay in if you can exit the building
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Permalink Reply by Walt Goebel on
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thank you this is waht i was looking for!!
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Isint the RIT pack for when you are trapped and unable to get out ... I cant see a reason to stay in if you can exit the building
It can depend upon the RIT pack. We now carry a RIT pack on each engine and truck, there are capable of buddy breathing or quick fill. An advantage of using the buddy breathing is that multiple RIT packs could be used giving longer time on air, vs doing a quick fill each time the trapped FF's air gets low.
One thing to also remember with buddy breathing is that it uses the lowest bottle first and this means low air alarms will go off until the low bottle is empty before switching to the full bottle.
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We have a portable fill station and it is standard that we leave the structure when the low level alarm rings, We have RIT bottles (Which are in a sled like bag, with proper hoses and such) plus we also have the ability to run a hose only into the building to connect the the trapped member, it is hooked up to a fill station.
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Permalink Reply by capcityff on
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You don't believe in knowing how to buddy breathe? Saying you're going to leave when the alarm goes off means nothing. What if something goes wrong? Your pack could malfunction or you may become trapped. You never know what might happen inside and if something goes wrong you should be able to buddy breathe.
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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on
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Actually, the NFPA recommends against "Buddy Breathing." Their theory is that if I have low air and you have a full bottle, you stand a better chance of being able to save us both in a timely manner with your full bottle. I personally disagree. If I got air then WE got air!
The newer SCBA's have a quick connect on the rear as a RIT connection. This is not a buddy breathing port, but actually a "transfill" port that will equalize the bottle pressures when conected to a RIT pack.
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Thank you for your replies
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The newer SCBA's have a quick connect on the rear as a RIT connection. This is not a buddy breathing port, but actually a "transfill" port that will equalize the bottle pressures when conected to a RIT pack
This can be one aspect of a newer SCBA, but the new ones do also have the buddy breathing capabilities as well and either can be used for a RIT operation. The quick fill connection will work between a low pressure and a high pressure SCBA, although a high pressure won't completely fill from a full low pressure bottle. This was part of our training with other depts for RIT ops. The buddy breathing connectors wouldn't fit between the Scott and MSA. We do have RIT packs with quick fill and buddy breathing capability.
the NFPA recommends against "Buddy Breathing." Their theory is that if I have low air and you have a full bottle, you stand a better chance of being able to save us both in a timely manner with your full bottle. I personally disagree. If I got air then WE got air!
I agree with you, but I guess in what the context of the recommendation is referred to. Buddy breathing is meant to be a tool for egress only, this is also to be trained along with calling a MAYDAY. I could see where the recommendation frowns upon buddy breathing to give those extra seconds or so to fight fire when a low air alarm goes off, or to not call a MAYDAY believing two FF's would be able to get out etc. Buddy breathing is another tool, an important tool which hopefully wouldn't need to be used, but should be trained on and left as an option for egress.
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