Dept. taking away Leather Helmets PLEASE HELP!!!

[FyredUp]

OK, sorry, I was on a laptop that was being impossible it left out letters and spaces. Here, I'll type it again for you.

If you feel that the last post I made was directed at you, and not you in particular fyred up anyone on this thread, then re-read your posts and re-evaluate how you give folks advice.

It's sad that all you got out of that post was a double copy of a sentence fragment and a misspelling.

Sorry that I expected your point to be coherent.

[rrt2008]

OP, you are fortunate that your chief will even allow you to present your case. In my dept, you wear what the town issues (Globe G7 gear...nice. Bullard salad bowl helmet...not so nice) and no discussion otherwise. The chief wants uniformity in appearance on all calls. Workers Comp in Ontario, according to the chief, will fine the town/dept if one is not wearing the approved issued gear and and injury occurs.

The town is now looking at purchasing the plastic LAFD Phenix helmets for us now. I'm not crazy about this but again I have no choice

[firefightinirish217]

OP, you are fortunate that your chief will even allow you to present your case. In my dept, you wear what the town issues (Globe G7 gear...nice. Bullard salad bowl helmet...not so nice) and no discussion otherwise. The chief wants uniformity in appearance on all calls. Workers Comp in Ontario, according to the chief, will fine the town/dept if one is not wearing the approved issued gear and and injury occurs.

The town is now looking at purchasing the plastic LAFD Phenix helmets for us now. I'm not crazy about this but again I have no choice

And he never said he wasn't fortunate. The guy's upset because of the change, understandably. Also, most dept's that let you buy your own helmet expect uniformity. All the same color, all the same style. We had the Cairns 660's before at Dalton, we hated them. Made our case to the training division ( they handle the gear appropriations) and they said, hey, you know what, it just may be better. If it will help morale, and they're not that much more, why the heck not. So we got 1010's. You don't know what you'll get unless you hound the heck out of them. Just be careful of hounding too much. When they say enough is enough, time to suck it up and deal with it. This guy just wants help with info.

[firefightinirish217]

Sorry that I expected your point to be coherent.

Apology accepted

[thedozer]

Lol. I know how that feels, technology isn't always coherent.

[JohnVBFD]

I swore I wouldn't ever enter a helmet thread but here goes...I've seen newer plastic helmets melt, crack in half with a "hit" from a structural falling object of no more than 12 feet, crack with someone standing on it, melt through by dripping hot liquid, and jar the wears head unmercifully when coming in contact with an imovable object.

3. I;m from the 60's 70's 80's and some of the 90's and have more than 30,000 alarms to which I wore the same helmet. It sure does not look as nice as the day it was fitted for $25.00 but it left the job with me and I never - never got a head injury while wearing it! Strange!

4. Next is marketing - did anyone ever research where the first plastic helmet come from? And who made the success of it? It seems like anything that works well in this job, AND lasts longer than a single firefighters career is not in the interest of marketing. The sad part is that most of you that are interested and experienced in this job reinvent the old stuff back into focus. Look at hand tools, nozzles, personal lights, gloves, and more.
I swore I would not get into it but this is just an opinion from an old firefighter.

.....What?

[FyredUp]

I swore I wouldn't ever enter a helmet thread but here goes...I've seen newer plastic helmets melt, crack in half with a "hit" from a structural falling object of no more than 12 feet, crack with someone standing on it, melt through by dripping hot liquid, and jar the wears head unmercifully when coming in contact with an imovable object.

3. I;m from the 60's 70's 80's and some of the 90's and have more than 30,000 alarms to which I wore the same helmet. It sure does not look as nice as the day it was fitted for $25.00 but it left the job with me and I never - never got a head injury while wearing it! Strange!

4. Next is marketing - did anyone ever research where the first plastic helmet come from? And who made the success of it? It seems like anything that works well in this job, AND lasts longer than a single firefighters career is not in the interest of marketing. The sad part is that most of you that are interested and experienced in this job reinvent the old stuff back into focus. Look at hand tools, nozzles, personal lights, gloves, and more.
I swore I would not get into it but this is just an opinion from an old firefighter.

I am glad your leather helmet survived almost 4 decades and 30,000 alarms of service. I wish you a long and happy retirement.

Unfortunately, I can't say that I have enjoyed the same luck with my 3 well maintained Cairns leather helmets. The first one lasted 10 years and was simply no longer serviceable due to cracks and breaking of the leather in the rear brim. I put this down to 10 years of hard use that included live fire training as an instructor. My next helmet lasted 5 years before it simply fell apart, once again at the rear brim. I do give Cairns creit they did warranty replace the shell for free. The replacement last about 5 years and once again the rear brim simply fell apart. That was it for me. I was at a fire school where a vendor was selling out some helmets he was no longer going to carry and I bought a Chieftan plastic traditional look helmet brand new in the box for $50. It was yellow and I had to paint it black so I used grill paint. (If you need to paint a helmet black use this instead of engine black paint. It is made to survive temps up to 1200 degrees F. And it has for over 5 years!) This helmet subjected to the same usage as my leather has survived 5 years with the only damage being my Bourke eye shields are a melted, curled up mess.

My attitude is if you want a leather helmet, your FD will let you wear it, AND you can afford it...Go ahead and buy it and enjoy. As for me, unless I become a Chief of Department and will NEVER do interior firefighting again, no thank you, I will keep my PLeather helmet!!

[ThNozzleman]

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