The tools
The risk assessment is the first of these. More are being added, each one built to answer a question departments keep having to answer on their own.
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Structural PPE Risk Assessment
NFPA 1850 requires a risk assessment before you select structural firefighting ensembles, and OSHA requires the hazard assessment be certified in writing. Walk through it here and download the finished assessment as a Word document and a PDF.
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Grant Funding Opportunities
Most departments buy protective equipment with money they had to apply for. What is available, what each source will pay for, and how to evidence need.
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Protective Apparel
Five elements certified as one system: coat and pant, helmet, hood, boots and gloves. What each does, where the interfaces between them lose protection, and what to ask a supplier.
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Cleaning of PPE
Contamination does not stop at the fireground. Advanced cleaning, inspection, record keeping, and what a care and maintenance program has to cover.
More on the site
Reference material behind the tools: firefighter health and the standards that govern it, the two technologies used to decontaminate gear, and how departments buy equipment without running a solicitation of their own.
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Health & Wellness
NFPA 1550 and NFPA 1580, what the consolidation changed, and what a medical evaluation program has to cover, plus where OSHA’s proposed Emergency Response standard fits.
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Cancer Screening
Occupational exposure as a firefighter was classified a Group 1 carcinogen in 2022. Precision epigenomics and multi-cancer early detection from a single blood draw.
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WetWash Technology
Washer-extractors built for turnout gear rather than for laundry, the detergent chemistry that goes with them, and the PFAS wastewater question that follows.
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Liquid CO2 Technology
A waterless process that passes through the moisture barrier, runs at room temperature and leaves the gear dry: no drying stage and no wash water to discharge.
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Purchasing Agreements
Cooperative contracts let a department buy off a competitive solicitation another public agency has already run, with no bid of your own. Sourcewell, NPPGov and HGACBuy, and how to get started.
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Firefighter Visibility
Where NFPA 1970 puts the trim on a coat and why, what NFPA 1550 asks of crews working a roadway, and why turnout gear does not meet ANSI/ISEA 107, or the other way round.
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Independent Service Providers
A third party can start your care program, supplement it, or run it. What “verified” actually means, which scopes cover what, and the questions to settle before you sign.
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Helmets & Eye Protection
Where the helmet requirements went under NFPA 1970, why a faceshield is not primary eye protection, what balance does to the neck, and the ten year clock that runs from the date of manufacture.
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Coat & Pant
Three layers doing three different jobs, certified as one composite. Fiber, yarn and weave in the outer shell, the barrier, and the liner where the heat stress trade-off is decided.
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Hoods
Particulate blocking went from optional to mandatory, so a knit hood is no longer compliant. What the filtration figure covers, and the three interfaces a hood has to hold.