FEMA wants all SCBA replaced

Fire Apparatus and Emergency Equipment Magazine reports that there is a proposal by the Interagency Board (IAB) for Equipment Standardization and interoperability, which will require all Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) to use the same universal air bottle. This is scheduled for mandatory compliance in August 2007.

Even if you just purchased all new SCBA with a FIRE Act grant in the last few years, your masks, regulators and especially all your bottles will be non-compliant. The idea is that different departments at a mutual aid scene will be able to use any full bottle available, even if the SCBA is made by a different manufacturer.

Running out of bottles should not pose a problem, since all departments now must carry a spare cylinder for each SCBA unit in service. Bottles are now refilled from on-scene air supply trucks that carry high-volume air cylinders arranged in a cascade system to ensure full and uniform pressure. Since this takes less than five minutes, and a 30-minute air bottle provides about 18 minutes of air before needing to be refilled, running out of bottles is rarely a problem.

Another problem with this proposal is that this type of change will violate federal NIOSH standards under which entire SCBA models are certified to comply with OSHA standards. At present, using one company's air bottle on a different manufacturer's SCBA violates the NIOSH and OSHA standards even if the bottles will interchange.

More information can be obtained at www.firemagazine.com