The Importance of PPE

How Important is Personal Protective Equipment?

By now you may have noticed the different equipment our crew members wear in the photos where they are in the field working. So, we would like to take some time to discuss the importance of this personal protective equipment they wear with some lessons drawn from wildland fire incidents from 2021. Every year the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center releases an Incident Review Summary of the previous year, and this is where we will draw some examples from.

“We have examined these incident reports and learning documents, compiled a few numbers, and extracted specific lessons. It is our aim to present this information in a way that empowers us all to improve future operations. We hope you turn these lessons into learning” (Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center).

The first incident that we would like to discuss happened during the Koffman Road Fire, where there was a burn injury where a firefighter was overrun by the fire while in the back of a moving vehicle. “Fire resistant clothing is designed to prevent ignition of the clothing itself. This lessens a burn injury in a situation where the designed performance standards are exceeded, as they were in this incident.”

Executive Summary (directly from Lessons Learned Review WA-SES-262):

“The Koffman Road Fire was reported east of Kittitas, Washington on June 27th around 1306 Hrs. and the cause was investigated by the authority having jurisdiction. At approximately 1330 hours, a DNR Type II IA hand crew arrived on scene and the Crew Superintendent (SUP1) and Foreman (FOR1) were scouting Division A of the fire near the south flank looking for a safe location to engage the fire with the crew. Their intent was to keep the fire north of an existing two-track road, as well as make contact with a civilian bulldozer working the fire in the same area. At approximately 13:45 hours, SUP1 and FOR1 determined the civilian bulldozer and operator were in a safe location and were planning on burning out fuel between the road and the south flank of the fire. During this time a wind shift proceeded to intensify fire behavior and threaten their position. In the process of egressing the area, SUP1 only had time to jump onto the rear of a vehicle and was exposed to flame and heat while the foreman drove their escape route to the west. Upon recognition of the injuries, on-scene personnel provided immediate medical care and transport for evaluation and treatment.” 

Most of the burn injuries were to the right side of his body.

Personal Protective Equipment Analysis (directly from Lessons Learned Review WA-SES-262):

Helmet – It is a Bullard Wildfire Series Fire Helmet model FH911C.The crew superintendent’s helmet was on during the entrapment and shows little sign of heat exposure. There is a small piece of dye sublimation, about the size of a pen head (occurs at 425°F) on the right-side chin strap. Most likely from contact with a hot ember.

 

Gloves – Gloves were in use at the time, though the right glove was removed to presumably manipulate a lighter and lost during the entrapment. DNR issued gloves are NFPA 1977 certified.

Clothing – The injured crew superintendent’s Fire Resistant (FR) clothing was exposed to heat that caused the dye on the shirt to sublimate, become brittle and begin to char. Dye sublimation begins at 425° F and charring begins at a temperature of 825°F. The area of the shirt most significantly affected was the back of the right arm and part of the right shoulder. The protective trousers experienced dye sublimation on the right hip, buttocks, leg, and calf area. The boots were not damaged.

FR clothing is designed to prevent ignition of the clothing itself. This lessens a burn injury in a situation where the designed performance standards are exceeded, as they were in this incident. The firefighter also wore a short-sleeved cotton blend shirt under the FR shirt, which likely lessened the burn injury to his upper body.

Line Pack – Pack is Nargear, made of ballistic nylon. All thermal damage to the pack is down the right-hand side, including canteen pouch, radio holder, fire shelter pouch, and waist strap.

 

To read more about the Koffman Road Fire Incident, click here.

 

Another incident of note was on the Deep Creek Canyon Fire, where a firefighter was struck by a rolling log, that cracked his helmet. The protection the helmet provided his head was very significant considering the load that rolled over him. He was directly downhill from the tree when the sawyer was bucking it, the tree snapped and rolled down the hill. He tripped while trying to avoid it, only to be directly rolled over.

“The log jammed his face and head into the ground. He could feel the sides of his helmet squeezing his head.”

To read more about the Deep Canyon Creek Fire Incident, click here.

 

During the yearly training we have, incidents like these are brought up and discussed to remind us just how important our PPE really is – even if it gets in the way or makes some tasks more difficult (like the glove being removed to manipulate a tool).

 

“The information in this report comes from wildland fire incidents—from various entities—submitted to and gathered by the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center (LLC) in 2021. The primary source of this data is incident reports (FLA, RLS, SAI, etc.). Most of these reports have been posted to the LLC’s Incident Reviews Database. SAFENETs and other data sources have been included when no full report was produced or could not be located. For 2021 we collected information on 171 operational incidents.”