BA masks.

[KyleK]

Do any volly members have their own masks that were purchased with your own money or do you use masks suplied by your department. Or does every member have their own mask, which is their responsibilty, and when a call goes out you take your mask with you, and the rest of the time it stays in your locker and not on a truck.

[remya]

We do not purchase our own masks. We just use the one that is with the BA.

I would consider it though if I knew what that would cost. Most of ours are so scratched up that you need help finding a door just to get into a structure fire.

[KyleK]

Thats my point. Some guys on the department just dont treat equipment as careful as i would. since I like to have all of my gear as in top shape as when it came out of the box. And with normal wear and tear the lens does get scratched. My biggest peev is when after use the mask gets put away back in the truck sometimes wet or damp and it sucks to have to put a wet mask on. We dry them as best as possible but they still stay damp.

Any body have any ideas on how to dry BA masks after washing them. Also gloves. The leather ones take a week to dry out completly.

And I think masks are in the $100 range.

And dont use paper towels on masks. They scratch!!

[remya]

Paper towel is a good tip...at our hall it is 10 years to late. We hope that we can purchase new BA's soon, when and if we get new gear i'm sure it will be treated with a little more respect.

KyleK; how old are your BA's?

[Michael13]

we use scott 2.2's. some are less than 5 years old. some i dont know how old they are. 2.1's maybe, if there is such a thing.

[itchyduval]

Hey dude,

I'm the "Pack-man" for my hall (volunteer). I can relate to all of your concerns. It seems most guys have a different interpretation of what "clean" and "dry" mean. Anyway, what I use is a lint free paper towel, then I use a hair dryer on COOL to dry them off before even considering them dry enough to go back in the case. I to would love to have my own gear BA but keep in mind most townships or municipalities get pretty stick about guys not using the equipment that their communiteis tax payers dollars provided.....your personal safety, and comfort, rank much lower on their list.....unfortunately. Good luck.

[whitewater-409]

hey everyone;
unfortunatley our station doesn,t have the funding for individual mask, and besides we have three diffrent makes, we use what we have and feel the most comfortable with,
We currently have ISI (2) Survive air (2) and Scott (2) i personally get a better seal on the survive air, and as of cleaning we inspect each BA, once a week and make sure that all straps are extended fully as well as the mask are clean and dry, after a fire if the BA's were used we wash the Mask and scrub the bottles with cleaning solution and use a hair dryer on high speed, But on medium heat to cool setting, we use the blue shop towels to wipe the excess moisture from them as well. Does anyone have a good solution to prevent mask from steaming up when in use.

[Michael13]

We also 'try' and use a hair dryer on our mask, but when theres maybe 6 or 7 mask after a call, nobody has the patience to stand and dry them. The blue shop towels would work nice, except we have a problem with things disappering at our hall, and chief is fed up with it, and wont buy supplys anymore because they dont last. We do have an arrangment of rags, that we use. We usally get the masks dry but its the webbing that goes on the back of our head that stays wet. I usally leave them on the seat of the truck, with the windows down. Now I'm waiting for someone to sit on one. As for the purchasing of masks, I meant any FF who wanted their own would have to buy it. That would be over $2000 if chief bought one for everyone. We dont have a problem with differnt packs though. All the maks are the same. We just have two differnt sizes of masks. Green(small) and black ones(large). I only know of 3 or 4 guys that need a green one. everyone else uses a black one. As for the fogging up in masks I know what you mean. I remember the first time I put on a SCBA when I joined, I had my mask on way to early. It took 15 mintues to drive to scene, and it was really fogged up. Now when we know where the call is, I wait until we are almost on scene beforeing putting the mask on. I have seen a product for hockey players called anti-fog, but I have never tried it. Does it work?

[whitewater-409]

hey as for gloves to dry, i neat solution is having two used soup cans, drill approx. 8 to 12 1/4" holes around the top and tie an idiot string to the centre of the cans, and place the glove cuff over the soup can. Leave the closed end of the can with the holes pointed out so air circulates in and out. now here is where the idiot string comes in, hang it on the coat hook and the gloves will dry pretty fast. as kids mother use to tie a string to the mittens so we wouldn,t loose them now my kids wonder why i have issues.... lmao

[Michael13]

hey the soup can idea really works. the best ones, now after i have made one, is to use really long cans. the longer the better. my gloves dried in a day or two. thanks for the idea.

[whitewater-409]

Glad this will work for you, and i should have mention long cans oops sorry... don,t forget the idiot string....lol

[merlin]

we have a large sheet metal box about the size of a fridge
at the bottom we have cut a hole and place a milk house heater in the side. it has a blower to push the air (eletric 220 volt heater) and a built in thermistat.
we hooked it up to a timer. in side we made racks to put the mask on. or hang the old style up on. place a small hole in the top about 4" with a damper to let the air flow throught it and out works great.

you can get the heaters at tsc or any farm coop

[TiSme]

Hmmmm ... long cans ... going to have to try that for the gloves. Sounds like a great idea.

As for the masks. As with most departments we also use the shared mask system. Each week all equipment is checked including BA. But after every call that BA has been used on. The systems are inspected before returning to service and the masks are washed out and hung to dry. We have a group of drying polls at the entrance to the bays. The next guy in the hall after the call (to work out, check his equipment, come back form a med, etc) will check the masks to see if they are dry. If they are they are put back in the trucks. The idea of the placement of the polls is so that if we get another call before anyone has had a chance to put the masks back you see them as soon as you get in the hall and can grab it as you head for th truck. This has worked well for us and is part of the station SOP's. So all new recruites are trained on it to ensure we all work as a team on the same page for all maintenance procedures.

Let's be safe out there.

[firechixrock]

I guess that I am lucky because I have a small narrow face so most masks don't fit me so I have my own that I carry with me! one of the perks of being a female I guess :)