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Allowing children to try on fire gear and helmets during PR details.
I have been trying to find documented cases of neck injuries of children from trying on fire helmets during PR details. I see many times where members of my department and other departments allow kids to put on their fire helmets. From a liability standpoint this practice concerns me, but I have not been able to prove this practice can cause injuries. Any help would be appreciated.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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Sounds like your chief is a reactionary idiot.
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Permalink Reply by Gary Stevenson on
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I think most of us have been told of the neck injury story and though it sounds there may be some plausibility to it, attorneys will jump all over it to CYA. The real issue that we should be aware of is the nasties that our personal PPE may contain that we do not unnecessarily want to expose the public to. (There's a reason our turnouts aren't by the sides of our bunks any more.) If you are going to allow the public to try on gear, consider having professionally cleaned gear that's designated as such. Then spray them down with Lysol, or other disinfectant, after use.
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Permalink Reply by WestPhilly on
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Jesus Christ! Let the kids wear the friggin' gear already.
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Permalink Reply by Rachel on
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It has not/is not a problem with the county departments in my area.
The kids love it.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Allowing anyone, regardless of being a child or an adult wear someone's PPE, including the helmet is not cool. It's a tool that is the personal property of someone else. Unless you have that person's approval, no one should touch their PPE.
With that said, and I think it's important to stress here on a public forum the need to respect one another's "things", the days of having a child don a real fire helmet are pretty much over where I live. The incidence of head lice was one of the primary factors. The head injury factor never came into play because one would assume that a firefighter would not place a heavy fire helmet on the head of a small / fragile child. That's just common sense and to date, I have never heard of this until now on this forum.
For times when I was conducting kindergarten fire house field trip tours, a fire helmet (real one) was placed on the child's head, but... they did not move around, preventing a potential neck injury. I purposely put the helmet on the child, (if they were big enough in my opinion), because I had the booster line off the engine with a small Purple K nozzle with a bale for the child to move back and forth, squirting water. The engine was at idle with the pump engaged, no pressure to speak of but... liability concerns made me think that having a child wear the helmet with the front shield down was a good idea... just in case. I also new the teachers and my wife is a school nurse, so I did not have any concerns Re head lice. Now. times are different, and you cannot have the same assurances. Times have changed unfortunately...
However, there is a way to enable to kids to still enjoy the thrill, but even more so... I need to find a photo to make my point more fun, but trust me, there is a cool solution to not allowing kids to wear the real helmets.
CBz
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I guess there are no head lice in Philadelphia. (In 21 years of letting kids wear my helmet, I'm lice-free.)
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Permalink Reply by joemac on
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Yup. Let's all just squeeze every last precious drop of fun out of everyone's lives in the name of safety.
"It's never happened before, but it might...", "we wouldn't want to risk a lawsuit."
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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Where I am the kids all have $75 haircuts, so it's not a worry. Besides, what parent would want a dirty, smelly turn out coat put on over their kid's Armani outfit?
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Permalink Reply by DUST on
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My department used to have some lice concerns until I came up with the idea of giving them all buzz cuts before the tour starts...Here is one of our guys giving a kid a little trim before he gets to see the trucks!
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Here's your answer... inexpensive "Fire Prevention" cheap red plastic fire helmets, with your departments name and logo or even cheaper, the generic fire department hats, specifically made for children. No problem anymore with lice concerns or head injuries. Just letting the child hold a "real" fire helmet will make the experience of receiving their very own that much more memorable.
I think this is a safe and liability free solution. The only thing I would like to add is that if you are dealing with Kindergarten children walking to the fire station, then you will want to coordinate with the teacher in regard to handing out the hats. The promise of getting the hats, and a stack handed to the teacher at the end of the tour is very valuable when as one of the teachers calls it, "keeping a group of young children together is like herding cats sometimes...". The fire hats both reinforce the fire safety / prevention message when they get back to school, and then home and serve as management tools for the teachers. A definite win/win scenario for all.
CBz
Note: Can you not help but notice the child in the front? I wonder what she was thinking that day? I never really bothered looking at this picture before but when I posted it, and to be honest, it kind of gave me the creeps with everyone else being part of the moment. Maybe she's related to the Adam's family?
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Awesome photographs. You can really see the joy in this child's face. Again, very cool photograph that I will share with my wife who is a special education critical care RN.
CBz
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I think it's a personal choice, left up to the station captain. If the kids look like they are from a third world country, one might think twice. In my 38 years working, I never personally encountered a problem, but my wife, a school nurse warned me that times are hard for a lot more people, and this includes families sleeping in less than desirable places for some... These kids in turn bring problems to school, and so on. It does happen unfortunately. I still say the inexpensive red fire helmets are the ticket...
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