I have a bunchhhhhhh.
Here's a start.
Really neat pics-
On January 13th, a few of our local fire fighters responded to a house fire at about 7pm in the evening. They were told there was someone inside so they began a search and found the victim, a man that weighed over 400 lbs.
One of the firefighters tried to drag this man out with the assistance of his Lieutenant, and in the process the victim's O2 bottle exploded. The firefighter was caught in the midst of the explosion, and subsequently actually caught fire.
The firefighter continued to drag the victim until the point in which he realized he was on fire. He then asked to go and the Lieutenant OK'd it. He was steamed when they extinguished him outside of the house, and suffered a few burns on his ears and wrists as a result of this and the explosion.
Below are pictures of the firefighter's burnt gear.
A normal jacket and pack to the left, The burned jacket and pack to the right
Close up of his Jacket. Note the place where his air bottle and its pack and straps were against the jacket and unburned. Also note the completely melted reflective stripes, and the rips in the seams where the jacket actually shrank and busted.
Closeup of packs and bottles. Note the strap that holds the bottle in the pack. The pic isn't that clear, but the bottle actually blistered on the top where the majority of the heat was.
Unburned helmet on left, the burned one on the right. Note the size difference. The burned one shrank.
Rear view of helmets and face masks from air packs. Unburned on left, burned on right. Note the actual burned Nomex hood. This is where the ear burns occured. This is fricken unreal. I have never sean a nomex hood actually burn. I guess it had something to do with the accelerated presence of O2 in the explosion..
Here is a pic of his helmet and his face mask / hood sitting on a pole. Note the stress cracks in the shield of the mask. Hard to see but it looks like a shattered tempered glass window. When he took his mask off, it actually left impressions of his fingers in it because it was still soft and pliable from the heat.
Here are his gloves. They are laying on top of unburned gloves, to show how much they shrank.
These are the guages on the bottom of the air pack bottles. They tell how much air is in the bottle.
Unfortunately, the victim did not make it, but in my opinion this firefighter gave one heck of an effort. This is the worst case I have seen, and his pants and boots all suffered the same fate. His boots are still wearable, but will probably be replaced for good measure.
Just figured some of you all might like to see what these suits can do, as far as protecting life in such a hostile environment. This whole suit, air pack and all, can cost as much as $3k. A small price to pay to protect us as we work :cheers: