LFB New PPE

[BurtMacklin]

Looks like a change of colour to gold/beige tunic and leggings for London with fluorescent yellow helmets going from the blurry picture on Hotwire, should be on the run October next year. Part of a working group of 20 brigades apparently so maybe a shift towards national group buy type deal? Kent had the lead on this, any one know any more details? 

[Aspire]

Put simply, economies of scale. The more you buy, the cheaper it becomes as you develop more bargaining power. The Brigades involved recognised this and decided to do it. The provider will be Bristol and the gold kit will allow us to see contaminants like blood and cacinogrnics, so should promote regular cleaning.

London do want a few changes though, like having 'FIRE' on the back. As it stands, legal are saying the contract allows for individual FRS' to make subtle changes at a cost to them.

[OscarTango]

What helmets will we all be getting then? I'd heard we might be going back to Gallets?

[Bgjm21]

if it's the Kent procurement consortium then it's the new rosenbaurs, Scotland has signed up to this aswell.

[Messyshaw]

2 hours ago, Aspire said:

Put simply, economies of scale. The more you buy, the cheaper it becomes as you develop more bargaining power. The Brigades involved recognised this and decided to do it. The provider will be Bristol and the gold kit will allow us to see contaminants like blood and cacinogrnics, so should promote regular cleaning.

London do want a few changes though, like having 'FIRE' on the back. As it stands, legal are saying the contract allows for individual FRS' to make subtle changes at a cost to them.

Lets hope the LFB don't get lumbered with "Fire Service' (not 'Brigade') on the back as we'll have to suffer another Steve rage

[BurtMacklin]

ah well can't really argue with the colour choice if that's the reason, I can already see a lot of people going for just the right amount of dirt look though like those people who never clean the soot off their helmets 

[Steve M]

This is what we are getting apparently......

(I prefer our darker PPE to be honest.. ?..)

[Aspire]

7 hours ago, OscarTango said:

What helmets will we all be getting then? I'd heard we might be going back to Gallets?

Rosenbauer Hero Titan

[Dyson]

The PBI gold stuff is what we use, with the hero helmets.

It does obviously show up contamination, but thats fine as we should be changing our fire gear after every decent fire anyway.

[Steve]

Thank God I'll be gone. This is 'inferno red'-gate all over again. (Which went pink after a few washes). I was pleased to get back into dark stuff in 2010 and like the Gallet.

I accept it is sensible to be part of a larger procurement group and I also accept the benefit of the lighter gear in terms of what it shows up. But I'm and old stick in the mud traditionalist, who is now two weeks past his sell by date... four types of Firegear in one career is enough and as it is today LFB still have kit that as far as I know isnt the same as anyone else's.

[Carefree]

I quite like it, very similar to the Essex PPE.

[Cashybai]

IIRC a few brigades used previous incarnations of the PBI gold and found that it looked rubbish after a few washes, acquiring a permanent staining, anyone care to clarify?

[Matt]

The gold stuff never looks good after a few wears and washes only gets worse I think with its age.  

The new gold kit Lincolnshire have does seem to fair better, can't quite tell from that picture above if its the same kit or not though.

[Halligan]

@CashybaiWe have the gold stuff and yes it does looks crap after a few washes, mine looks bleached/faded. Whoever washes ours seems to love a boil wash to get it clean, Ive had two pairs of leggings come back looking more like shorts

[Alan]

DFB have been been using PBI for about a year. It shows every contaminant, which is a good thing. Washing isn't too much of an issue but it fades from gold to sand colour. Stains are dealt with by having ozone injected into the wash in the cycle which opens up the material.Washing of any PPE is critical, both from the ph of the detergents and the temperature of the water. Boil washing any PPE will destroy the waterproof barrier and damage the fibre.

[Luminoki]

Dont forget repairs. When the PBI gold stuff is sent away for washing, Bristol sometimes take it upon themselves to do repairs with brand new material ( done after the wash ) so after a while it starts to look like a patchwork quilt

[HB12]

We have the Bristol PBI gold, they replaced  both my sleeves and put the old pocket back on! ? 

[Slade1890]

Was intrigued by this and after a quick search found the following FOI request. Within the response back is an attachment detailing the agreement. 

Seems that the new gold uniform will come in Oct 2018 when the current Bristol contract runs out. I see the reasoning's for a procurement consortium as it will reduce costs quite a bit. It seems that  different services/brigades will be able to tailor aspects of the PPE to their own preferences. 

I couldn't figure out whether or not LFB will go for the simple 2 piece (Tunic and Trouser) or layered approach (structural jacket/lightweight rescue jacket and trousers) which i believe GMFRS are currently using. I like the concept of the layered approach but as I'm not currently a FF (hopefully will be soon) I'm not the best person to say. Link below for brochure from Bristol detailing the different options available. 

Bristol Uniform Collaborative PPE Brochure

[Jet]

This stuff looks pretty good. If it was up to me, as a firefighter, I would go for the full structural jacket plus the rescue coat. I have been using GMFRS' layered approach since June and to be honest, I'm a bit at odds with it. Find it quite uncomfortable and having to put two jackets on in the back of the pump on the way to a persons is just frustrating. I'm very much in support of having two tunics and I like the hi-vis jackets we have but I would rather only have to wear one jacket at a time! Also our jackets don't seem to offer much protection for our necks at all. The hi-vis layered jacket in that document appears to have structural protection around the collar, something we don't have on ours so I wonder if we've been given the right thing. The gloves also look a lot better than what we have as well. As we are with Bristol now I'd be keen to see this introduced here except maybe keep our current hi-vis jackets.

[Slade1890]

I did think it could be uncomfortable depending on the size/thickness of each jacket but couldn't figure that out from the pictures. The high collar seems to be on the mid-layer jacket as opposed to the top-layer structural coat which has no collar at all. Assuming this would be that in the event of using the mid layer for wildfires or similar the level of protection is there from the collar.  

[Jet]

Yes you're right, the top structural layer has no collar at all, which leads me to another idiosyncrasy of the design. By using the layered approach you have a coat which is useless on its own, so when we have to send a hi-vis jacket away and then send the second spare one away before the original gets back, we have to revert back to our old style PPE as the structural layer cannot be worn on its own. If they were the proper structural coats, we could continue to wear them on their own at special service calls in the event that both our rescue coats are away for laundry, meaning less reliance on having to use the pool tunics. We would only have to add a high vis jerkin on top when working on roads/railways etc which we have to do anyway with the pool kit.

[Slade1890]

It's a good point. In order to be able to get into a building on a person's you would need both layers otherwise you would fry.

My guess is then that LFB will go with the full structural and rescue. Depends I guess on how much pool gear is available as I believe at the moment LFB FF only get one personal set. 

Are you having these kind of problems with your layered gear in GMFRS with regards to cleaning/repairs? 

[Jet]

All LFB gear is pooled so there is no personal issue. When you want to send your gear away for cleaning or repair you just swap it with new gear that is packaged up and already on station. Your old gear is sent away and you won't see it again in theory as it will probably be sent on to a different station when it's been dealt with. You have to sort it out on the computer so that Bristol know you've used a set and will then send out a spare set which will go straight into the station PPE locker ready for when you need to swap it again.

GMFRS issue two personal sets that have barcodes detailing the employee and location so when it gets laundered/repaired it comes back to you. Much prefer this option myself. With regards to any issues, as I pointed out if both your sets get dirty or damaged within a short time span then you have to revert back to old style PPE which is quite common as the rescue coats get quite dirty and they are much more frequently worn on their own than with the outer layer.

[Supernova9]

LFB will be having just the one set of structural PPE for firefighters, no rescue coats or layered approach. The only orange stuff we'll be ordering is for USAR personnel.

[BurtMacklin]

I read on Hotwire that we’ll be issued with “rescue gloves” so hopefully we’ll finally have a glove appropriate for the majority of operational tasks we do! and a helmet torch and helmet bag. what a time to be alive.