under armor

[ftfdverbenec770]

this might be a stupid question, but i wasnt sure,


is there any chance that under armor, or anything like it, could melt if you had it on under your gear, it if got hot enough? i have started to wear it under my gear, and it works wonders for when its hot out.

im not tryin to promo under armor, but the same goes for the nike, rebock stuff too.

[SamsonFCDES]

I supposed it could since its synthetic. Never tried it myself, melting or wearing it.

I havent gotten them yet, but I ordered 2 long sleaved Under X shirts for the wildland season. I plan to wear them along with my Advance brush pants daily to work. I can just slip on my brush coat if I think I need more protection.

http://www.edarley.com/darley/catalo...ion&linkid=255

They are made from Carbon X material, I am realy impressed with this stuff.

http://www.chapmaninnovations.com/products/carbonx.html

I have a Carbon X face should on my Phenix 1500 that I use for structure and wildland. It realy realy blocks the heat. I took a hand torch and tried to melt it, it starts to glow red but never burned or melted. Saw that on the website and I had to try it myself. I did that to my old Nomex face shroud, and it was toasted in no time flat.

We had a rather hot wildfire a while back, it was along a bar wire fence with huge piles of tinder dry tumble weeds caught on it. The piles were 4+ feet high and about 20 feet wide. It was hot enough to melt the barwire in places. The radiant heat was impressive. I put on my face shroud and goggles and didnt feel it at all throught the carbon X face shroud. The Hotshild logo patch on the face shroud was made from some other material, it MELTED!!! I didnt even notice it until I took my helmet off after the fire. It had crinkled up and even dripped away. Maybe they should have embroidered their logo onto the shroud.

The under X shirts are supposed to wick moisture and cool you off, but like I said, I havent gotten mine yet so I cant give a product review, I am just hopeing they work well.

[SamsonFCDES]

I just had to try this at home. It is sort of neat seeing a fabric glow.

It was glowing red, but no damage was done to the material.

I will have to try it again as I didnt seek how long it took for the heat to sink through the fabric. I was haveing to much fun looking at the pretty red color.

There was a little string of Carbon X that had frayed loose. I tried to melt it and it just glowed like a hot wire or something.

I am betting that this stuff will soon find its way into full PPE.

[Jasper 45]

The stuff is made up of almost entirely polyester. Last time I checked polyester melts. I do think that if you were wearing it and it became that hot, you have more problems than just having the stuff cleaned out of your burns.

[NCfire]

ditto jasper, by the time it melts to you, your in a heap of trouble. if it gets that hot, you dont need to be there.

[MEck51]

I've been using it for 7-8 months now (under armour) and have had no problems, I think it is great for under the uniform shirt, we are still required to wear the uniform no matter what the temp. no t-shirts here. Not to say the rules don't get bent when the chief goes home.

[EmeraldSafety]

As they say in the "Tactical" portion of their own website www.underarmour.com:

"Do not wear Under Armour© products when exposed to extreme radiant heat or open flames. Under Armour products may melt in extreme heat that exceeds 350 degrees F. Never use Under Armour products as a substitute for flame-retardant or ballistic protective equipment."

Stay safe!

[Dave1983]

I've been using it for 7-8 months now (under armour) and have had no problems, I think it is great for under the uniform shirt, we are still required to wear the uniform no matter what the temp. no t-shirts here. Not to say the rules don't get bent when the chief goes home.

WOW! Somebody else has this idiotic policy. Now I dont feel so bad. Of course, we cant take the shirts off when the Chief leaves. He comes back to make sure we have our shirts on.

As for the topic, I dont know anything about the stuff. But if its polyester, I wouldnt wear it with PPE. Same for polyester pants.

[Plattsfire2]

As they say in the "Tactical" portion of their own website www.underarmour.com:

"Do not wear Under Armour© products when exposed to extreme radiant heat or open flames. Under Armour products may melt in extreme heat that exceeds 350 degrees F. Never use Under Armour products as a substitute for flame-retardant or ballistic protective equipment."

Stay safe!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure once it reaches 350 degrees inside your bunker gear you'll already be meeting your maker.


BTW - this post goes to show just how many different people browse these forums. Of course, they may have been requested to post by the WT.

[Firetacoma1]

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but aren't the ratings for bunker gear done assuming nothing at all is worn underneath? So it shouldn't matter if the material is synthetic or not right?

[FlyingKiwi]

Just a silly question for the people that shove rubber bands around helmets with chocks etc in them.

If you are worried about your underwear melting, wouldn't you notice it was hot when the rubber band went "PING", and burning blocks fell past your visor?

Just a thought, although not a big one.

[2andfrom]

Just a silly question for the people that shove rubber bands around helmets with chocks etc in them.

If you are worried about your underwear melting, wouldn't you notice it was hot when the rubber band went "PING", and burning blocks fell past your visor?

Just a thought, although not a big one.

Long before all covering helmets, visors ,neck curtains, Nomex etc, etc--all Brigade members had little appendages that stuck out from the side of the head--these were natures antennae, and called ear'oles.
Warmish =OK
Hot=still OK but be careful
Bloody Hot =start thinking about bailing out
Crinkly crisp lace doyly effect=you have no right to be where you are.

And if I can send a certain pic-you will see what protection there was in the early sixties

[BFDLT32]

We have had personnel try under armor while on-duty. We wear FR style uniforms. All the personnel who tried them said one thing in common, NO!!!

[ftfdverbenec770]

wow guys, that was a hell of a bump

[2andfrom]

Southwark Training School-March 1962--where is the reflective jackets etc?

[FlyingKiwi]

Now this is going to be my shout when we get together for the beer 2andFrom.

That was taken 15 months before I was born.

Ang on. The bloke on the left, is that one of the old leather axe holder pouches on his left hip?

Now there is a fashion statement.

[2andfrom]

The bloke on the left is me--Rod Martin died as a direct result of the Brixton Race riot of 1981(God how I hate those Fire brigade funerals). Yes the axe pouch is leather and is hanging on the wall-along with the axe that I carried for 20 yrs(and the battle bowler is also hanging up with the Proto headharness still stuffed inside it)
The leggings were black plastic-melted real easy(good early warning device). Leather boots-still got my original issue 2xpair(the later steel soled/toe capped rubber jobs crippled more blokes than the Blitz)

[123456D]

Compromise is everything.

Do I think everyone needs Nomex station uniforms? No.

Should we allow FFs to be issued Polyester station uniforms? No.

Cotton? That could be a reasonable compromise.

Anyway, while the risk is low...the impact of having tight-fitting polyester underoos on could be quite significant.

Bunker gear is designed to be worn naked. That makes it easier for the manufacturer to design and spec it -- if you're dumb enough to wear something that melts underneath it, not their problem. They made it to wear naked, not to rely on an additional layer of FR Cotton or Nomex Station clothes as part of the ensemble or the absence or presence of UnderArmor.

Risk? Probably small, but greater than if you were wearing cotton undies. Personally, I'd stay in the old fashion stuff and leave the performance polyster to when I'm out hiking/biking/etc.

[MEck51]

So we shuold strip down before we put on our gear? Either way it doesn't apply to me anymore we have new policy on t-shirt time so I can be somewhat cooler in the summer. As far as the rest of it goes I agree with some of the other posts, if you are in an enviroment where inside your gear you are reaching the melting point of this product- you probably have bigger concerns.

[rapidentry]

If anyone is still interested, UnderArmor is now sellinf fire resistive shirts.