By Brandi Makuski
Two more National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards, this time covering personal protective equipment (PPE), are going to be consolidated. NFPA 1850, Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural and Proximity Firefighting and Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), will consolidate NFPA 1851, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, and NFPA 1852, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Open-Circuit Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA). While it’s only reached a first draft status, committee members encourage public input at each stop on its way to publication.
“It basically manages one big umbrella of protective clothing and gear,” says Lieutenant Webster Marshall, Gwinnett County (GA) Fire Department and a research chairman for the Fire Fighter Cancer Foundation. “The goal for NFPA was to not have so many revolving standards because most of them reference each other. We put them all on the same schedule; for example, NFPA 1970, Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural and Proximity Firefighting, Work Apparel and Open-Circuit Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) for Emergency Services, and Personal Alert Safety Systems (PASS), was all of the protective components that we grouped together. NFPA 1850 is the care, maintenance, and selection book that goes along with that performance book.”
It’s just the latest in ongoing updates to the hundreds of NFPA standards, Marshall says.
What triggered the consolisation, according to Marshall is that, “There are some parts of 1851 and 1852 that bleed over because the SCBA were under 1852, and protective clothing was under 1851,” he explains. “In the past, they’ve been on their own five-year schedules, but they never really matched up, so there have always been some years where portions of one standard didn’t coincide with the other; but they both had to say the same things and reference the same testing. One would be behind, another would be ahead. It was a neverending, kind of a messy cycle. The goal the NFPA had was to clean that up and put ‘like’ things together.”
For example, Marshall says, as NFPA 1850 brings together the cleaning, care, and maintenance of everything that’s in NFPA 1970, PPE and SCBA are “all grouped together in exactly the same way,” so the performance standards match, and they update concurrently.
Lieutenant (ret.) Jim Reidy, San Antonio (TX) Fire Department, says beyond the consolidation itself, many changes involve updating language, though there are some notable changes that organizations need to consider.
“I would say the biggest challenge is to navigate the hazardous substances that the gear is exposed to and how to treat it properly to get it cleaned. One thing we are doing—and the firefighters in unison say they are voting for this—is raising the percentage that the gear has to be cleaned in order for a cleaner to be verified.”
Currently, Independent Service Providers (ISP) must be certified to clean 50 percent of contaminants from PPE. The new standard raises that to 70 percent, he says.
“It’s just difficult to get some of those contaminants out of the gear,” Reidy says. “You just can’t get 100 percent of that stuff out. There’s a CO2 cleaning process that cleans the gear really well. They use it after lithium ion car battery fires, but I don’t think that’s even at 100 percent. And, there are only two [ISPs] in the country that can do that. It’s very expensive.”
Other proposed changes include:
- The creation of a certified PPE Technician and possibly a PPE committee, for departments.
- Stronger focus on risk assessment criteria guidelines that reflects potential fireground hazards.
- Possible options for acquiring a second set of gear for firefighters.
- Including definitive performance requirements for cleaning detergent products used on PPE.
- Creating a video tutorial that illustrates the differences between advanced and routine cleaning; also, certifying certain persons within a department to perform these functions.
- Allow for additional cleaning methods other than washer/extractor methods, to include liquid carbon dioxide and ultrasonic cleaning.
- Better monitoring of water hardness, which can impact detergent efficacy.
- Require that all newly purchased PPE and SCBA are compliant with the current edition of NFPA 1970.
Reidy says it’s unlikely that 1850 will be published until 1970 is, and the latter will likely be delayed. Heightened concerns over PFAS contamination have resulted in a new durable water repellent (DWR) cover for turnout gear. The new standard for DWR is either silicon or wax-based and, according to Reidy, only repels water. “So, the new DWR on the outer parts of the gear doesn’t repel anything but water—oil, hydraulic fluid, and anything that’s not water will penetrate the fibers of the bunker gear, causing a hazard during a flameover or other high-heat situation,” he says. “In the older gear, DWR repelled cooking oil and just about every other hydrocarbon out there.”
The new DWR affects gear purchased during the last 18 months, he said.
“And, it’s really hard to clean; once it gets dirty, it’s going to stay dirty,” he says. “The average firefighter probably has no idea which one he’s got on.” Information about DWR is shown on the label inside the bunker coat, and the fabric is also softer to the touch, Reidy says.
Regardless of those concerns, Reidy and Marshall say committee work will continue as there are still several steps to complete. Once a final draft is published, manufacturers will have 18 months to create and test new equipment before it hits the market, Reidy says.
But, the process of publishing a new standard isn’t as successful without public input, according to Marshall. “I would encourage anyone who may read this article to be part of the process. To send comments to us to work on,” Marshall says. “There are 20 or 30 people who represent a couple million firefighters in the United States, and a lot of folks don’t ever get involved. I hate that because they have good ideas, they’re part of the fire service, and they are directly reflected in this, just like me; I’m an end user.”
Reidy says even though the proposed updates can make for some dry reading, he still hopes firefighters get involved. “There are a lot of people who won’t be interested in this, but this will still be held over your head whether you’re interested in it or not. We want input from the youngest firefighter to the oldest chief.”
NFPA 1850 is scheduled for publication in late 2026 or early 2027. More information is available at https://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/1/8/5/1850.
Brandi Makuski has been a journalist in Portage County, Wisconsin, since 2004, and currently operates the Point/Plover Metro Wire. She maintains strong relationships with local police and fire/EMS agencies, and advocates training journalists to better cover emergency scenes and improving communication between emergency workers and the press.
