Apparatus Safety Advocates Set Sights On Width Of Seats
By Lyn Bixby

This month marks the second anniversary of an impassioned meeting that challenged apparatus manufacturers to save lives by designing better seating and seat belts so firefighters would be more inclined to buckle up.

The objective is simple, but it can involve more complex issues, such as whether to allow self-contained breathing apparatus in cabs, whether to limit the number of seats and whether formal training programs should include seemingly basic tasks, such as how to get dressed and how to get in and out of apparatus, as well as how to get in and out of seats.

Since that 2006 meeting, which took place at the Fire Department Instructors Conference, a size study measuring more than 700 firefighters was conducted by Roger Lackore, the director of research and development for Pierce Manufacturing, Inc., who found that firefighters in bunker gear are larger and heavier than most apparatus designers had figured.

As a result, the National Fire Protection Association is increasing the required length of seat belts, as well as increasing the weight allowance for firefighters from 200 to 250 pounds, in the 2008 revision of its 1901 standard for apparatus. The new NFPA standard will apply to apparatus built after January 2009.

The FDIC meeting that generated those developments was organized by J. Gordon Routely, a retired fire chief representing the Safety, Health and Survival Section of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and Fire Department of New York Lt. Mike Wilbur of Ladder 27 representing the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

Routely and Wilbur are understandably gratified that NFPA increased the requirement for seat belt length, but they are disappointed that they were unable to convince the NFPA apparatus committee to also increase the required width of seats and spacing between seats in fire apparatus, a far more controversial proposal. They are seeking more studies, and they would like to see a maximum of three seats allowed across the width of the cab.

“It seems to be problematic when you try to squeeze four seats across the back wall or the front wall inside one of the custom cabs today,” Routely said in a telephone interview. “Putting three seats in instead of four seems to solve that problem, so firefighters aren’t so jammed into the seating spaces that they can’t manipulate the seat belts and manipulate their other equipment and don’t become a hazard to each other because they are so packed in.”

That proposal is not expected to sit well with many fire departments that order 8-person and 10-person cabs, a fact readily acknowledged by Routely. But he maintains comfortable seating is a key factor in convincing firefighters to fasten their seat belts.

In a two-week period before he was interviewed, he said two more firefighters died in the line of duty because they were not wearing seat belts. He and others estimate only about 50 percent of firefighters use their seat belts.

Running Out Of Excuses
“It’s a major issue that we’ve got to deal with,” he said. “At some departments it’s hardly anybody, and in other departments it’s almost everybody. If we solve the seat size problem and the seat belt length issue and we make the seat belts as practical as possible to use, then we run out of excuses why not. Then it’s just a matter of convincing firefighters why.”

But it’s not an issue that draws crowds at fire service trade shows and conferences, where firefighters frequently have a dozen or more presentations competing for their attention in any given time slot.

In early February at Firehouse World in San Diego, Calif., Routely and Wilbur gave a presentation on their “Firefighter Safe Seating and Seat Belt Project” that drew just eight people.

Wilbur recalled that manufacturers of apparatus, seats and seatbelts were invited to the 2006 FDIC meeting, which he described as very contentious with a lot of finger pointing.

“Everybody realized that seat belts didn’t work,” he said, “and nobody wanted to make an issue of it, and we did.”

After the meeting, he said, he and Routely were approached by representatives of several manufacturers, including Roger Lackore, who asked what they could do to help.

Lackore’s study, called the Firefighter Anthropometric Data White Paper, is published on the Web site of the Fire Apparatus Manufacturer’s Association, which co-sponsored it with the NFFF. Its purpose, according to the study, was to provide guidance to fire apparatus designers on the range of firefighter sizes, weights, and shapes and to establish minimum seat belt length data to be used in setting NFPA standards.

He developed a set of instructions for fire departments that volunteered to participate in the study to take 34 different measurements of individual firefighters, who were asked to wear the bunker gear and tools they would normally have when riding in an apparatus.

Pretty Good Data
Lackore said his goal was to measure 1,023 firefighters, the number he determined would provide a statistically significant study. Although he fell short by almost 300 subjects, he said the study provided the precision necessary to make decisions on revising minimum seat belt and weight requirements in the NFPA 1901 standard.

“I think we have pretty good data now that we didn’t have before,” he said in a telephone interview.

Wilbur and Routely are assembling more data through what they described as a pilot program using three-dimensional body-scanning equipment to take measurements of 100 firefighters. They hope that will lead to an expanded body-scanning study of 1,000 firefighters by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

SCBA In Cabs
“In some cab configurations people almost have to interlock knees in order to sit in seats that are installed face to face,” Routely said. “So we want to make sure there’s enough space all around, width, headroom, legroom, that a firefighter wearing protective equipment can safely and practically get into the seat and stay in the seat.”

One of the issues brought up by Wilbur in San Diego this winter was whether SCBA should be allowed in apparatus cabs. He said he initially was inclined to prohibit SCBA in cabs because it would help sterilize the cab, making it more likely firefighters would buckle up.

But he changed his mind after determining: “One overwhelmingly bad thing would happen. If you put SCBA in the outside compartment, firefighters would take it out and put in the cab anyway without the bracketry. The pill would be worse than the disease.”

NFPA 1901 requires that equipment brought into the cab be secured in brackets that can withstand forces in a 9-G crash. But, as Routely cautioned in San Diego, the brackets are no good unless firefighters use them.  He said he has read reports of crashes where SCBA cylinders go through the windshield.

Robert Tutterow, the Charlotte (N.C.) Fire Department’s health and safety officer, attended Routely and Wilbur’s presentation. Tutterow, who was also the chair of the Safety Task Group of the NFPA Technical Committee on Fire Department Apparatus, was asked about the NFPA’s stance on SCBA in the cab.

“There has never been a formal proposal to remove SCBA from the cab,” he said, “and there would be tremendous opposition if there was one.”

Wilbur and Routely said manufacturers have been able to build seats that effectively secure SCBA, but they said if firefighters are going to wear SCBA in cabs, more preparation is needed to keep them safe.

“We have to make it a training issue,” Routely said, “how to get dressed and into the apparatus and fasten the seat belts. It’s something everybody seems to take for granted.”

He said one reason for training is to reduce injuries suffered by firefighters getting in and out of cabs while wearing SCBA. “The advantage is a time advantage,” he said. “You save so many seconds by having the SCBA on when you get out of the seat.”

During nearly three decades as a firefighter in the Bronx, Wilbur said he has never had a situation where 30 seconds made a difference in saving a life. “Do it with a sense of urgency,” he said, “but do it right.”