Keeping our firefighters safe

“Firefighters are heroes.” We hear it all the time, from children, the media and young people looking for a rewarding career. It’s probably something you’ve said or thought yourself at one time or another. These brave men and women put their own safety on the line every day to protect their communities. Yet, amazingly, one of the most dangerous aspects of the job is not the fire itself, but the protective clothing they wear on the job. 

Firefighters come into contact with chemicals by breathing them in, getting them on their skin or ingesting them. If personal protective equipment (PPE) is not cleaned adequately after a fire response, the harmful toxins on the gear can contaminate vehicles and the fire station, and ultimately the people who wear it. When firefighters take their gear home, these particulates can spread to their cars, public transport, homes, partners and children. 

By following strict guidelines around proper turnout gear decontamination, we can greatly reduce the amount of exposure firefighters face when doing their jobs. Rising to the occasion, the new  ISO 23616 provides guidelines on the proper selection, care and maintenance of protective ensembles for firefighters, which include cleaning, effective removal of contaminants and repair of their PPE. 

A fire department’s financial realities were also taken into consideration in the standard’s development. ISO 23616 provides a framework for educating and training volunteers, and the staff who manage them, to ensure that their PPE is always clean, safe and properly maintained. While it remains the responsibility of the individual firefighter to undertake regular inspection of their PPE, thanks to the standard, there will soon also be a reliable system that includes training to ensure that this can effectively be achieved, whether for professional firefighters or volunteers.