Firefighters often talk about when to wear SCBA and when not to. The guidelines for when to wear SCBA are quite clear as per NFPA standards.
But in reality, the NFPA recommendations are often overlooked and not taken seriously. Despite recommendations by the leaders in the fire service via websites and training seminars, firefighters continue to ignore the hazards of not utilizing their SCBA completely.
Although most fire departments have clear operating procedures, what is happening during incidents is often contrary to what is required. This article is less about NFPA and what is correct, and more about showing video examples of how what is required and necessary for the health and safety of firefighters is not being practiced.
I have heard all the reasons why, when, and where we should don our SCBA and all the same for when we shouldn’t. What is clear in the videos I find on YouTube is the rules are rarely the same and often different within companies in the same department.
I blame this on poor leadership and firefighters not taking the dangers seriously. The following videos found on the Web will shed some light on common poor SCBA practices.
The first video features a common practice of wearing the SCBA but not actually using it. We know coming off the rig that we are potentially operating in a hazardous atmosphere. We put on our SCBA and spring into action, but we fail to use it in the hazardous environment we are operating in.
If we are trying to be proactive in case of an emergency, we would be not only be wearing our SCBA, we would be utilizing the face piece as well. Not wearing your face piece puts you in a reactionary mode, where you are trying to either guess when something bad will happen or trying to react fast enough after the case so as not to be injured.
This is also not considering the fact you are operating in a toxic environment without any protection. The most common reason for firefighters not wearing the face piece is that they are saving air for “when it gets bad.”
This next video features another common SCBA mistake. The fire has been extinguished and we are going to go search for extension during the overhaul phase.
As the fire is out, the feeling is that the obvious danger and life hazard has been eliminated. We tend to let our guards down and take our face piece off or wear no SCBA at all. In reality, we are now exposing ourselves to some of the highest levels of toxic gases that occur during a fire.
The next two videos highlight another common misuse of the SCBA. We often come across fires in our career that are completely exterior operations. The fire has gone well past the point of an interior attack, and incident command has called for a defensive attack.
This may signal two things in a firefighter’s mind: We are now making an exterior attack so we are breathing fresh air, or as we are going on the defensive maybe the likelihood of a hazardous environment has decreased to a point that protecting oneself becomes secondary.
The final video is probably the most common example of poor SCBA use; vehicle fires by far are the largest culprit of poor SCBA use decisions. If we were to base SCBA use at car fires by videos found online alone, we would have a fire service epidemic. It would be obvious to the general public why percentages of cancer in firefighters are so great.
In order to understand proper SCBA use, a department should have clear guidelines and an understanding of an IDHL atmosphere. An IDHL atmosphere evolves constantly with the timeline of a fire incident
Areas that may have been safe to operate in may become hazardous and vice versa. In the end, the responsibility and accountability for proper SCBA use comes down to the individual firefighter, the officer supervising operations, and the chief engineer who creates the policy and the tone for compliance.