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firemoose827

Air Quality Monitoring for Fireground Ops

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I have read a lot of information from around the country in regards to departments beginning a program to monitor the air quality during interior firefighting operations, especially during overhaul, and requiring their members to keep on air until these quality checks come back negative for CO and other harmful gases. I am interested in beginning this for our department as well being we have nothing set up as far as when you can come off air, and I see members going in to the building with packs on, but mask dangling at their waist's while their is still active fire. Overhaul is a joke...practically no one wears their packs and it concerns me with all of the press regarding firefighters and cancer rates, as well as respiratory illness...its staggering and unbelievable to think that we still refuse to wear our packs during overhaul. Is it the "Macho" thing??

My question is; does anyone have an SOP already in place that I could review, to get some ideas of how we can write one custom for our needs? Does anyone have any additional information you could share as far as statistics, actuall experience's, or case studies involving respiratory illness and cancer being attributed to being exposed to these gases during overhaul stages? Basically, anything I can use as ammunition when I go to our next officers meeting and begin the process of starting some kind of program for our department.

Another question is; should we even write an SOP right away or just use actuall real time experiences to guide the process and judge what we would need as far as the SOP, and just use our new 4-gas meter to assess air quality and not allow anyone to enter without pack?

Any input would be greatly appreciated, I am not afraid to admit when I do not know enough about a topic and ask for help and advice from others who might know more then me.

Thanks in advance and stay safe.

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Why not write an SOP that has the safety officer decide when air packs are no longer needed in the suppression effort. That way the safety officer can then research and modify behaviors as new data, technology and knowledge become available. Barry would you please weigh in here.

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If you have guys not wearing masks the issues are probably being fed from the top, monkey see monkey do. I wear mine till the smoke is gone. Sometimes it's hard to continue use when overhauling cause it really taxes your system, but all that is needed is a trip to Sloan and see some of the people leaving and that changes your perspective. And as for safety officers, nine times out of ten they have no clue nor do they remember what it's like to be in the trenches with the men, they just operate on all the nonsense they read from nfpa.

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If you have guys not wearing masks the issues are probably being fed from the top, monkey see monkey do. I wear mine till the smoke is gone. Sometimes it's hard to continue use when overhauling cause it really taxes your system, but all that is needed is a trip to Sloan and see some of the people leaving and that changes your perspective. And as for safety officers, nine times out of ten they have no clue nor do they remember what it's like to be in the trenches with the men, they just operate on all the nonsense they read from nfpa.

I agree, appointments to safety officer are not realy thought out here too much, its usually whoever is retired or has a lot of time on their hands and is not already an officer. I am working on that issue as well and will develop some qualifications for the position and make it an official appointment by Chief, approved by fire commissioners. But thats a whole other discussion!

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Unfortunatly simply measuring CO is probably not enough. I have some friends who worked on this project and the research found that micro-particulates were present well after the fire. As uncomfortable as it is SCBA probably should be worn throughout the overhaul period in the fire area. Not saying I am without sin here just citing the facts.

http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/offerings/industries/buildingmaterials/fire/fireservice/smokeparticulates/

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Why not write an SOP that has the safety officer decide when air packs are no longer needed in the suppression effort. That way the safety officer can then research and modify behaviors as new data, technology and knowledge become available. Barry would you please weigh in here.

1st - At a minimum you need to follow OSHA regulations for both CO levels and O2 levels. O2 must be higher than 19.5% (and your alarms on your 4 gas meter should be set for this.) For CO the short term exposure level (max level for 15 mins then 1 hour in clear air) is 200ppm. This is the standard high alarm setting (we have changed ours to 100ppm). Anything above that point or below the 19.5% we mandate you wear your mask. The 35ppm low alarm level for CO warns workers that they can not go higher without resp. protection when they will be exposed for 8 hours (40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year for 20+ years).

2nd - When monitoring, I have always found that the highest levels of CO, lowest of O2 are almost NEVER in the room of most fire. In multiple dwelling fires, the high levels will be found in the hall, floor above, top floor, other apts. etc. This is because we vent (or its already vented) the fire area.

3rd - There are other toxic gasses such as hydrogen cynide that your monitor will not detect., If you are not dealing with a facility that uses it, then in general if the other levels are low, because of venting you should be ok.

4th - Here is the problem.......How can you tell if the particulates in the environment are a problem? You can't. So if the gas levels are ok at a minimum you still need a good fitting particulate mask. I like using a cartridge filter on my SCBA Mask.

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You "should" have a safety officer, and that safety officer "should" be monitoring air completely during all stages of a structure or working fire. With that the safety officer "should" be maintaining adequate levels of PPE for all people working in the Hot and warm zones.

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