Eli5: why do firefighters wear oxygen masks when fighting a building fire, but often not in a wildfire? You’re still breathing in smoke…
In: 483
You’re right, though the exposure risk isn’t as significant for structure fires as wildfires, it’s still BAD bad, and with the information coming out on smoke and diesel particulates over the last few years you might expect to see changes around PPE at wildfires soon.
I’m in Australia, and the attitudes around smoke exposure has really changed in the last 20 years that it’s not unusual to see newer gen guys go into a smoked-out room in BA, but oldboys swagger in with nothing to save time. We’re beginning to see shifts in the use of PPE expanding out to better usage at bushfires now because of how dramatic cancer rates are in the occupation.
As someone else was saying here, funding is a part of it; as urban firefighters we have access to negative pressure masks with readily replenished MPC canisters, which volunteer rurals don’t. Also the putting on and taking off of masks is a lot of faffing around so the incentive doesn’t really seem to be there when you *may* be dealing with outcomes in 10-30 years.
Latest Answers