PHOENIX — The Phoenix Fire Department this week ended its contract with SCBA provider Draeger over problems the department has had with its air pack regulators.
The move comes after the two sides spent two years trying to solve the reliability problems; the contract, signed in 2008, was worth $3.3 million.
According to the Arizona Republic, the fire department documented that 120 of the 808 regulators broke in the field. Many of the problems involved the regulator separating from the facepiece.
The department established a subcommittee to examine the problem and began closely monitoring reports of SCBA failures.
For its part, Draeger maintains that the problem does not lie with the SCBA units but from a lack of maintenance, specifically not properly lubricating the O-ring. When the problems first arose, Draeger tested the units that reportedly failed in its laboratory.
Fire officials told the paper that problems with that particular issue decreased once it changed the maintenance practices.
“It is regrettable that our slower than desired customer service has led the department to seek other manufacturers. However, we do not believe and fiercely defend against any allegation that the decision was based on the belief that our products are unsafe,” the Draeger administrators told the paper.
“We went back to Draeger and they kept deferring it to operator error. You can only have so many operator errors with the firefighters in the field before they take offense to that,” Phoenix Firefighter Steve Beuerlein told the paper. “That’s when we really tightened up the documentation system.”
“We were hell-bent on finding out what the issues were so we could sit down with Draeger and work them out, fix these things,” he said. “They were working with us, and problems kept coming up. Then we started talking to other fire departments around the country that were using them. Then, quite frankly, we were very concerned.”
Draeger says that it supplies more than 1,500 fire departments in the United States. Yet, two other departments have come forward with complaints about the SCBA’s reliability.
Dekalb County, Ga., reported problems with its Draeger facepieces and there are news reports that Anchorage, Alaska was having problems with its Draeger SCBA.
These problems have raised enough concern to involve the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which is investigating the claims to determine if the problems are errors in design or operation.
Phoenix will solicit bids from SCBA manufacturers to replace the Draeger units.