Out-of-air emergency: Using technology to survive

The fire service MUST embrace current technology to help reduce firefighter injuries and deaths. It’s about going home to your family and protecting your fellow firefighters. In every line-of-duty death (LODD), a member’s future plans have been cut short by a preventable accident or by inherent firefighting dangers that could have been mitigated.

Recent training and technological advances have shown promise in helping attain the goal of reducing the 100 LODDs that occur every year. A new “last chance” air-purifying respirator is a vital missing component to our current self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) ensemble. Note that it is a “component” — not a standalone device; it is to be used only in an emergency as the firefighter’s last chance for survival if he runs out of air.

Historically, firefighters equipped with a mask with a chest-mounted regulator and a low-pressure hose to the mask were trained to tuck the hose into their flannel-lined bunker coat if caught in an out-of-air situation. Although not effective for filtering out smoke toxins, it provided a crude air-purifying respirator. It also demonstrated firefighters’ awareness that an out-of-air emergency is a real possibility and that they should have a backup plan. Because of materials used in current building construction and furnishings, smoke is now more toxic than ever, thus heightening the need for a last-chance respirator.

The only other environment in which an out-of-air emergency occurs is that of scuba divers; many now carry pony bottles or emergency breathing devices for such emergencies. Since many fire departments have underwater rescue and recovery teams, why are divers—and not firefighters—equipped with emergency breathing devices when firefighters will find themselves in hostile environments more frequently? Carrying a five-minute escape SCBA is one possibility; but even if its weight negates its viability, how much time would this actually buy in a high-stress situation?

Although SCBA manufacturers take great pains to build reliable breathing apparatus, an out-of-air situation may result from work in a very hostile and dynamic fire environment. It is well documented that low-order failures as well as catastrophic ones can occur because of operator error or a manufacturer’s defect. A potential point of failure in some breathing apparatus is the high-pressure hose that connects the cylinder to the regulator. For whatever reason, if this should fail, the firefighter may find himself out of air in just a few minutes.

In 2005, according to the National Fire Protection Association, documented instances of smoke inhalation and respiratory distress accounted for 3,390 injuries in the U.S. fire service. In the 1990s, 63 percent of all non-heart attack deaths inside structure fires resulted from smoke inhalation. One study found that firefighters are just as likely to die in a structure fire today as they were 25 years ago. The rate of firefighter deaths in the 1990s was as high as three per 100,000 fires. Between 1995 and 2004, 79 firefighters died from smoke inhalation. Analysis of past LODDs shows the need for conservative air management training, safer staffing levels, and trained rapid intervention teams (RITs).

However, even with the best training, the inherent dangers of firefighting demand that our members be given the best chance of surviving an out-of-air emergency. This technology does not take the place of implementing proper tactics training; it only complements it.

Past LODD data show that out-of-air emergencies result from several factors, including allowing insufficient time for exit, backpack entrapment, equipment malfunction, and disorientation (leading cause). We have all heard haunting tapes of radio calls for help from a lost firefighter who was running out of air. Whether in New Haven, Connecticut; Hackensack, New Jersey; Phoenix, Arizona; or New York City, no department is immune to this scenario.

THE LAST CHANCE RESCUE FILTERSM

The eighth item on the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation’s 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives states, “Utilize available technology wherever it can produce higher levels of health and safety.” Essex PB&R Corporation has developed a filter canister, the Last Chance Rescue FilterSM, which is a one-time-use emergency backup respirator that attaches to the SCBA mask. The device has a service life of five years when maintained in its moisture-resistant barrier pouch. Models designed to fit specific manufacturers’ SCBA are available. The canister is lightweight (14.1 ounces), slightly larger than a soda can, and attaches to SCBA straps for easy access and increased accountability. The canister filters particulates as well as toxic fire gases such as hydrogen cyanide, acrolein, and hydrogen chloride and converts the most notable firefighter killer, carbon monoxide (CO), to nontoxic carbon dioxide. A review of 105 fire fatalities by Deputy Chief Ted Jarboe of Montgomery County, Maryland, found that soot and the gases listed above were found to be contributing factors in the death of all the victims.

How it works. Once the moisture-resistant barrier pouch has been torn open and the device is installed into the SCBA mask, the firefighter’s respiration draws contaminated air through the open end of the filter. The first stage of the filter is an N-95 pleated fiber filter that captures the visible (particulate) products of smoke and traps 95 percent of all particles 0.5 microns and larger. Autopsies show soot can carry toxins deep into the lungs and cause lower respiratory injuries, which this component mitigates.

Once the particulates above are removed, toxic gases enter the next stage of filtration, an activated carbon bed. Through the processes of adsorption and reaction, this stage removes most of the harmful gases, except for CO, which cannot be filtered.

The air containing CO passes through a granular bed of manganese dioxide/copper oxide (hopkalite) that converts this highly toxic gas to nontoxic carbon dioxide. The filtered and catalyzed air is then pulled up through the intake valve and into the SCBA face piece. The user exhales through the SCBA mask exhalation valves if applicable or back through the upper section of the emergency respirator and out its exhaust valves.

The canister is rated to provide 15 minutes of breathable air for the firefighter in an out-of-air emergency. That is not 15 extra minutes to work and then exit. This, in conjunction with tracking, an integrated PASS device, an early call for help, and a trained RIT, could make the difference between a fatality and a close call.

It must be clearly understood that this is a last chance respirator for emergency use only. Currently, when a member is out of air, that person’s only choice is to breathe the ambient immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH) atmosphere — not a good option! Using this technology will increase the chance for self-rescue and allow a RIT more time to locate the lost or trapped firefighter.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs has asked if use of this device would indicate a Mayday. The answer is no. The firefighter must call the Mayday as soon as he thinks he may be in trouble. There is no shame in calling for help if you get lost, separated, or low on air. All of these can occur long before your air tank is empty. The survival sequence is a large part of the Train the Trainer program that is posted for comment and peer review on FirefighterSafety.net. This site is linked to Fire Engineering’s, and we are linked back.

SELF-RESCUE OR RAPID INTERVENTION

Then-Assistant Chief Steve Kreis of the Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department conducted more than 200 RIT drills, publishing his findings in “Rapid Intervention Isn’t Rapid” (Fire Engineering, December 2003). He found that the average time for entry was 2.55 minutes and an additional 5.33 minutes was needed to locate a downed member. The human body cannot survive without assistance in an IDLH environment. This article is very comprehensive and adds a lot to the dialogue on firefighter safety. Kreis acknowledges that these numbers are conservative, since fire, heat, and smoke were not present at the drills. With these conservative times in mind, operational changes, training, and technology must be pursued to provide the firefighter with the greatest chance for survival.

Investigative reports show that when a firefighter runs out of air, his first inclination is to rip off his mask, which would prevent the RIT from attaching an SCBA RIT pack to the mask on arrival. However, this canister attaches directly to the mask without removing gloves or helmet, allowing the RIT to easily attach an SCBA to the mask. In an extreme case of backpack entrapment, the firefighter may remove the entire assembly to aid in the escape from the structure, while keeping on the face piece.

Past firefighter fatalities have shown that the firefighter faced with an out-of-air emergency was either alone or with another firefighter in a similar situation. Let’s examine these scenarios: Two firefighters become lost, trapped, or disoriented within a fire building and are faced with an out-of-air emergency. What would they do? If equipped with buddy-breathing devices, it is likely that their air supply is about the same, so if they are experiencing an out-of-air crisis, what good is buddy breathing? The two firefighters can’t share air that neither one has. If the firefighter is alone and becomes lost, trapped, or disoriented and has an out-of-air emergency, buddy breathing and universal air connections are of no use. All he can do is attempt to get out and activate his PASS alarm and hope he is located before it is too late.

By equipping the firefighter with a backup respirator that interfaces with his existing mask, that person now may have time to get out, effect his own rescue, or at least stay alive while the RIT musters. It has been shown that often departments are not as prepared for the RIT scenario as they may have thought. Also, if the RIT is allowed to conduct operations outside the fire building and has to be reassembled for a rescue, there may also be a delay.

Furthermore, the latest standards on breathing apparatus require a universal air connection (UAC), which allows a high-pressure fill connection to attach and fill a downed firefighter’s cylinder. This is only practical if RIT arrives before the firefighter is out of air. It will likely take years before all existing breathing apparatus are upgraded to this standard. Even with redundant low-air alarm indicators, heads-up displays, bells, whistles, and whatever other means are developed, firefighters will still, unfortunately, find themselves in out-of-air emergencies. This is inevitable and has proven to be so every year since firefighters started wearing breathing apparatus. Despite of all the safety technology built into this equipment, proper training is paramount.

Read the full story here.

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