Decontamination of Personal Firefighting Protective Equipment

Description

The Guernsey Fire & Rescue Service (GFRS) has a requirement to fully decontaminate and clean the items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that it supplies to its staff to protect them whilst attending incidents. Whilst attending incidents involving fire, there is documented evidence that carcinogenic hazardous contaminants are left on hard surfaces of items of PPE (Breathing Apparatus Equipment & Helmets) and absorbed into the material of items of PPE clothing (Fire Retardant Suits, Boots, Gloves, Flash Hoods). Due to the limited amount of PPE equipment in use and the requirement to ensure it is fully decontaminated from one incident before it can be used at a subsequent incident, the GFRS has a requirement to fully decontaminate and dry the following volumes of equipment within and 24 hour period: • 16x Fire Retardant Suits (Tunics and Leggings) • 16 x pairs of Fire Boots • 16 x pairs of Fire Gloves • 16 x Fire Helmets • 16 x Fire Flash Hoods • 16 x Complete Breathing Apparatus sets including masks and cylinders The frequency of incidents is unpredictable, but there is an average of four incidents per year that require a full inventory of 16 sets of equipment to be processed from a single incident, whilst small numbers of 2 – 4 sets of equipment are usual after most incidents, with an average of one incident per week creating a need for decontamination.