chin straps and waist straps

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anthony Avillo on June 19, 2008 at 10:08pm

that's great brent
i measn unbuckled waist straps
as bad as unbuckled chin straps
glad 2 c depts have a good attitude toward safety
2 many depts let it go and turn a blind eye
one look at the pics in FE and firehosue and esp. the internet (you tube) attest to the fact that we have allowed the most basic of unsafe actionsm, the proper wearing of your gear, to be ignoirted -- abso,utley unacdpetable
my opinion is that any officer or dept that condones these actions is unfit to be an officer. It starts at the top -- if it is not an issue at the top, it will never be an issue at the bottom
on a better note, should have your disc done by friday
stya safe
aa

Permalink Reply by Chris Fleming on June 24, 2008 at 2:33pm

We are VERY strict with new recruits about both of these issues. The violators tend to be the "senior" members of our department. In our department drill school we have "Desk Boxes" (desk box is what we call a 911 call rporting fire or smoke) where the instructor will say "Desk Box" at random times during the day and all recruits are timed as they get up from their desk, dress in full gear and SCBA, and go on air. By the time they finish drill school, they will have put on their gear hundreds of times complete with straps buckled and tightened and breathing air. If only we could get our chiefs to wear their turnouts at fires, I believe it would be easier to enforce "lapses' in PPE use.

Permalink Reply by Anthony Avillo on June 24, 2008 at 2:57pm

it starts at the top
u can never be better than your boss

Permalink Reply by Jamie Morelock on June 24, 2008 at 8:04pm

I remember reading an article once that Bill Gustin wrote about the chin strap and how it saved his father's life when he was standing on the turntable and a brick wall collapsed. He is convinced that if he had not had his chin strap fastened, something not very common in that day, his helmet would have been dislodged and he would have been struck by multiple bricks without any protection.

Even after reading the article, on the street I still rarely fastened mine. That was until I found myself in a situation where I lost my helmet at a critical moment. We responded to a large commercial building downtown with heavy fire venting from several office windows upon arrival. As the engine was stretching their line, I proceeded to the front door and forced entry. I dropped back, donned my facepiece and jammed my helmet down on my head. The engine was at the door ready and I crawled in beside the nozzle firefighter. We were in a reception area in the front of the office area and unsucessfully locating a door or hall that would lead us to the seat of the fire. I told the nozzle firefighter to hold on while I searched for the door. By dumb luck, and maybe a little skill, I immediately crawled right into the door that opened into the hallway. I moved down the hallway and located the offices that the fire had possesstion of, closed the doors and crawled back to the lobby area and yelled to the nozzle team to move up. By this time the doors to the offices had burned through at the top and fire was rolling down the hallway over head. I was against the wall slightly ahead of the nozzle firefighter. Simply because I had no where else to go. As the line was opened and worked into the overhead fire, the stream dislodged the drop ceiling tiles, followed by small sheets of glass. The first one sliced through the sleeve of my coat just missing my skin, the next hit my helmet and shattered followed by another that knock my helmet off my head. As a felt around for it another sheet of glass broke when it hit me in the head. Fortunately it must have fallen flat instead of on an edge. Anyways I found my lid and jammed it back on and we finished without any further incident. After the fire it donned on me what had transpired and I decided that I would not wear a helmet again without utilizing the chinstrap. Since that time I have been to fires where others have lost theirs, but time after time mine has stayed on top my noggin...which is good because my head seems to be a magnet to falling debris. I have heard all of the "reasons" for not wearing a chinstrap and have still to hear one that makes more sense than not wearing one.

My job has no policy pertaining to these issues. I would have to say that I can not remember anyone not fastening their harness waist strap. My personal reason is to take the load of my shoulders and back and transfer it to my hips. Additionally I believe an unfastened waist strap to be a huge entanglement hazard.

Permalink Reply by Anthony Avillo on June 25, 2008 at 7:31am

bravo
i know 2 guys that fell from heights -- 1 from a ladder during training and another crashed through a window into a shaft. Both landed on their heads. Botht thier helmets cracked in half on impact, but both helmets stayed on because their chinstraps were fastened. If their helmets had come off on the way down, they would be dead
Dept's who do not enforce these basic safety issues pay the price sooner or later
set the example -- don't be the example
aa

Permalink Reply by Richard Michitsch on June 26, 2008 at 9:10am

I have implemented the Chin Strap and Waist Strap (including Seatbelts while riding the apparatus) as a procedure in my company. There was some resistance at first, but now it’s a habit. Everyone has to be completely secured before operating on a scene. All Zippers, Velcro, Buckles, and Snaps must be secured while in operation mode.
Safety, Safety, Safety – Everybody goes home, Right!
As far as the department goes there is still much resistance to any of these and additional ones. We have firefighters that do not wear hoods, operate with coats open, don’t drop accountability tags at the entry points, I could go on.
But, I firmly agree that we need to Snap-the-Strap.
DON’T be the next one, BE safe!
Richard