The Air We Breathe
Any smoke you breathe is toxic; whether it be cigarette smoke, campfire smoke, wildland smoke, or smoke from a house fire.
While the smoke from the first three haven’t changed all that much in the last 30 years, the smoke from house fires has changed significantly. Smoke from any substance is a mix of chemicals and particles from whatever it is that is burning and those particles breathed in contribute to respiratory problems and cancers.
Firefighters rely on a trust-worthy breathing apparatus on our backs when we go into a burning structure for fire supression or rescuing trapped victims. We trust that the face-piece we wear provides a solid seal, that the air pack itself will not shut-off while inside, and that should we have our own emergency inside a structure that our team will be able to find us.
Up until two weeks ago, the SCBA’s (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) on our apparatuses was questionable on all counts. The face-pieces were dry-rotting, the PASS (Personal Alert Safety System) devices were unreliable, and the DOT-regulated air bottles that hold the pressurized air were expiring.
Chief Chris Finch brought before the Commissioners the concerns and needs of the paid and volunteer personnel regarding the SCBA’s that were on the trucks. Your Jasper County Fire Rescue Department would like to extend a resounding THANK YOU to the Commissioners for approving the purchase and delivery of our new Scott Air-Pak X3 SCBA’s! Thank you to our Chief for presenting our needs and being pro-active in keeping our members safe going forward!
The new Scott Air-Pak X3’s provide an industry-leading SCBA that has a full 10-year warranty on all parts of the face pieces and harness, a 15-year warranty on the high-pressure reducers, as well as the DOT-regulated 15-year validation for the air bottles. Our new air packs provide for buddy-breathing where if someone is low on air inside a structure we can hook into our partner’s air pack to make sure we get out safe. New to JCFR are provisions for fit-testing for every firefighter to ensure a proper fit, necessary for life-safety. Also, flow-testing for the next two years to provide quality maintenance and proper flow of the air we need to breathe.
The awesome bonus to all this is the inclusion of the Scott Pak-Tracker! Similar to a metal detector it finds a downed firefighter very quickly. When a firefighter has an emergency and his PASS device is activated, our new SCBA’s emit a radio signal that will allow Incident Command to locate where in the structure the downed firefighter is. All of these things are a signifcant improvement to the safety of our personnel that also allows us to perform our jobs quicker and more reliably.
And if you’re wondering if this investment is worthwhile, JCFR has already put these units to the test! In the past two weeks alone we have fought FOUR (4) working structure fires! Thank you to our Commissioners, thank you to our Chief, and thank YOU to the citizens we serve! Your support is invaluable.
As a reminder, www.tinyurl.com/JCFRcpr is available to sign up for CPR classes as well as reserve a tine for a Child Seat safety check or install. Bookmark the site as other classes will be added soon!
