Helmet Color and NFPA

[phyrngn]

I know that this topic has probably been brought up before, but I'm curious (I've got $100 riding on it): Is there an NFPA standard for helmet color? Which one?

Specifically...

Does the standard say that Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs SHALL wear white.
Captains and Lieutenants SHALL wear Red.
Engineers SHALL wear Yellow.
Firefighters SHALL wear Black.

I was told that the standard required departments to have an SOP on their color, but didn't specifically say what colors.
Anyone know abouty this?

[mtnfireguy]

No there isn't

Color is up to the department to determine what colors they want to use.

[Romania]

There is a sugestion in the standard (or a proposed standard, I can't remember which) that goes like this.

Command Officers (cheifs ) SHOULD wear white
Company Officers should wear red
Interior qualified FF should where Yellow
non-interior qualified FF should wear Black

Safety officers should wear blue or green (we use green here in the PHX system, but I think the standard says blue?)

On a side note... I don't care what any standard says... I like my black helmet.

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Alan Romania, CEP
romania@uswest.net
IAFF Local 3449

My Opinions do not reflect the opnions of the IAFF or Local 3449.

[phyrngn]

Thanks for the posts, fellas...would you happen to know the Standard Number?

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[FF McDonald]

Whether there is a standard or not---

NFPA is a consensus standard organization. They are not the law.

I recommend following their advice when it comes to many issues--- but simply put, if there were a Standard on Helmet colors, it would be up to each and every individual Fire Dept to follow that standard.

Marc

[stvfd88]

To my knowledge, there is currently no NFPA standard for color of helmets. Be safe!


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Scott Lambert
Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department

[Chris Deyerle]

Hey man our department is:
Cheif: white
Officers: Red
Firemen: yellow and black

[Chris Deyerle]

Hey man our department is:
Cheif: white
Officers: Red
Firemen: yellow and black


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Chris Deyerle

[Stretch]

Here in Memphis, we just changed helmets.
Before Chiefs wore white
Company Commanders wore red
And everyone else wore yellow
It made finding your LT inside a fire bldg pretty easy.

Now, Chiefs still wear white,
but LT's and firefighters wear black with the only difference between LT's and firefighters is that LT's have a white front on thier helmet, not very helpful if you're behind them.

If your getting new helmets, keep your LT's and firefighters a seperate color!!

[aussie george]

here in sydney austalia we also changed helmets a while back from
CHIEFS(DEP CHIEFS)-BLACK
OPERATIONAL COMMANDERS(batt chiefs)-RED
STATION COMMANDERS(company officers)-YELLOW
FIREFIGHTERS-WHITE
now the helmet colours are
COMMISSIONAR-DEP COMMISSIONARS-WHITE
SUPERINTENTENTS(dep chiefs)-RED
OPERATIONAL COMMANDERS-RED
STATION COMMANDERS-YELLOW
FIREFIGHTERS-YELLOW
with the company officers and firefighters having now the same helmet colour on the fireground it is hard to know who is who.the only difference is company officers have a red and white refective stripe on their helments and firefighters have a white stripe.its still hard for others like the police ect when they ask whos in charge you carnt really say the person in the yellow helmet as most persons on the fireground have one.

[HIangleLT]

There is NO NFPA standard on helmet color.
It is strictly department policy.
Escambia County Fire Rescue
Chief Officers: white
Company Officers: red
Engineers & F/F : black

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FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES
'99 National Champs #1

[IA Lt/P]

Chiefs - White
Capatains - Yellow
Lieutenants - Red
Mechanic - Blue
FF - Black

Easy to tell who is the officer and who is the IC. Color coding can be extremely useful (when the owner wants to chew someone out - "talk to the gut with the white hat")

[IMAFIREFIGHTER4FREE]

Our department colors are:

Chief---white helmet

Capt's and Lt's---yellow helmet

Safety officer--- yellow helmet holds rank of Capt.

Training officer--- red helmet

FF (state FF2)--- black helmet 3 blue stripes

FF (state FF1)- black helmet 2 yellow stripes

FF (completed state rookie school)--- black helmet 1 red stripe

probbie--- black helmet only

Note: stripes are big enough to see at a distance and are reflective. sounds like if there is a standard it's set by each department.

Todd of Tn.

[Dave Grice]

Our dept. is pretty simple, chief is white and the rest of us have yellow. We hear that this is what we've done and it is too hard to get different colors when we have so many acting officers it would be pointless to give someone a different color helmet for 6 months.

[RVFDCapt]

We also keep it pretty simple at our dept:
Chief officers.........white
Capt...................Yellow
Lt.....................Red
Firefighters and all others...black

We also use helmet crescents that recognize the position held, i.e., safety officer, Asst. or Dept. Chief, etc.

[RookieFireFighter]

Chief and Deputy's are white.
Captain's are red
Lieutenants and fire fighters are yellow.

[StanCap]

Here in southwest Virginia it's:
Chief- White
Assistant Chief- Red
Captains and Lieutenants- Yellow
Firefighters- Black

Stay Safe!

[Chris Shields]

The Lyncourt Fire Department located in Onondaga County - Central NY uses:

Chief and Asst. Chiefs - White
Safety Officer - White
Captains - Red
Lieutenants - Yellow
Firefighters - Black

I am a Lieutenant and my leather NY'er is still black but I have a yellow shield on it.

REAL MEN WEAR BLACK!!!




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