Chicago Fire Department

[Guest]

[quote name='The Nozzleman' post='31121' date='Sep 6 2006, 22:47 ']Okay I understand your side of it, but the NFPA Standards and most of the country (and correct me if I am wrong), have gone to full bunker gear have they not. I have wore both and yes I was better protected in full bunker gear and yes I did take a few more chances then I should have with full bunker gear and yes I had a couple more instances of heat stress in full bunker gear but shouldn't we protect our firefighters better than with the 3/4 boots?[/quote]



Dave,

I think you said it yourself. More heat stress. More Chances.. Results in FF deaths. So are we really protecting them so much better? Ok, here is something to think of....

CFD has 5,000 FF's and FDNY has 15,000 FF's(according to Firehouse Magazine)

I would like to find the info for FF deaths over the last ten years between the two depts. I would almost bet you that FDNY has more than 3x the deaths(excluding the 343 in 2001, No some people dont forget) than CFD. One of the number one killers in FF's besides apparatus accidents is heat stress and cardiac events(most caused due to heat stress). So I guess my question is... Are we really protecting our firefighters???

The honest truth most people dont like: Most organizations(like NFPA, not that I disagree with everything they do) are driven by monetary contributions from guess who???? In this case turn out gear manufacturers.

If you think it doesnt happen you are simply fooling yourself... Maybe tomorrow I will hit the IFSI library were the study was conducted......