Development of Fireground Exposure Simulator (FES) Prop for PPE Testing and Evaluation

Abstract

Research on the performance of personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Fire Service is challenged by the ability to repeatedly and feasibly test new designs, interventions and wear trials in realistic conditions that appropriately simulate end use environments. To support firefighter PPE research and firefighter PPE acclimation/training, a multidisciplinary team has developed a low cost, easily replicable approach for simulating conditions commonly encountered by firefighters operating on the interior of a residential structure fire. The testing enclosure can be used with either stationary mannequins or firefighters conducting typical fireground activities, providing a method to study a wide range of PPE and physiological studies as well as training activities that may support developing new technologies and standardized testing opportunities. Environmental gas concentrations and firefighters' local temperatures were measured during trials and compared to data collected from simulated fireground activities and fireground responses with good agreement.

Impact of Repeated Exposure and Cleaning on Protective Properties of Structural Firefighting Turnout Gear

“…The Fireground Exposure Simulator (FES) has been described in detail elsewhere [17]. Briefly, the FES prop was developed based on a 2.4 m wide, 2.9 m tall and 12.2 m long intermodal shipping container divided into three sections.…”

Impact of select PPE design elements and repeated laundering in firefighter protection from smoke exposure

“…Temporal and spatial variability in combustion products is expected within the FES chambers, as seen by the range in median PAH air concentrations between trials (70,700À285,500 mg/m 3 ). This known variability in test conditions is similar to that measured during simulated residential fires and can be both a benefit and a limitation of the technique (Horn et al 2020). Ambient chamber air samples were used in an effort to account for this temporal variability, although it is possible that there was a saturation effect for PAHs at higher concentrations.…”

“…The ambient chamber PAH air concentrations in this study (range in medians: 70,700À285,500 mg/m 3 ) were generally higher than levels reported in our previous residential fire and training fire studies 0.017 0.003 0.008 A To estimate the impact of repeated exposure and laundering on PPE protection factors, we calculated the ratio of median ambient chamber air benzene concentrations (Table 1) to benzene under jackets (rib region) B p-value from multiple linear regression of the log-transformed ratios of benzene under jackets in the chest region to median ambient chamber air benzene concentrations by type of jacket closure, controlling for cleaning cycles/exposure trial C p-value from multiple linear regression of the log-transformed ratios vs. cleaning cycles/exposure trial, controlling for type of jacket closure (maximum 78,200 mg/m 3 ) (Fent et al 2018(Fent et al , 2019. This relative increase in concentration may provide a high-concentration challenge to identify possible leakage paths in the PPE, which is similar to traditional laboratory simulant tests (Horn et al 2020). While it is likely that the magnitude of particle penetration (mass flux) is related to the ambient chamber air concentration (and hence the rationale for expressing results as PAH ratios in this manuscript), it is also possible that this pathway could become saturated, whereby higher ambient concentrations may not necessarily translate into higher flux.…”

“…The Fireground Exposure Simulator (FES) was developed from a steel intermodal shipping container, with the middle section serving as a combustion chamber generated by burning a commercially available sofa, and fire effluent ducted into two exposure chambers with up to 12 full-sized mannequins in each chamber ( Figure 1) (Horn et al 2020). For this study, nine mannequins were dressed in full PPE ensembles including different jacket closures (zipper vs. hook & dee) and hood designs (knit vs. particulate-blocking), placed in one (east) of the two chambers, and exposed to smoke from a burning sofa for a total of 10 min per exposure trial (40 trials).…”

“…The timing of ignition, ventilation, and suppression were the same for each exposure trial and were patterned after the interior attack scenario conducted during a previous fireground study (Horn et al 2018). While important day-to-day variability exists when utilizing the FES, such variations are similar to those measured from a simulated fireground study (Horn et al 2020). After each exposure trial, turnout jackets were cleaned either by laundering or on-scene decontamination.…”