r/Firefighting • u/Melodic_Abalone_2820 Firefighter/EMT-B • 19d ago
Photos Early 1900s FF suit. I wonder how effective it was?
Looks cool tho
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u/jenkisan 19d ago
You've got think that in the 1900s the fabric was not fire resistant and so a water barrier was all they had.
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u/spacecoyote5 19d ago
If they don't use it anymore, my guess would be: so effective that they had to discontinue it because it made firefighting too easy.
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u/Fif112 19d ago
We know what happens if you open a wide fog pattern in high heat.
This would probably steam you out as soon as you stepped into the building.
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u/RoughDraftRs 19d ago
Sure for interior work it would be useless or worse. Might have had some use in industrial firefighting kind of like a proximity suit. Obviously, it didn't work very well, otherwise we'd still be using it today.
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u/efcso1 Former wearer of birdshit on my shoulders 19d ago
Obviously, it didn't work very well, otherwise we'd still be using it today.
This is the answer. Drenching systems are good for vehicles, especially bush trucks, but not so much for individuals.
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u/JFISHER7789 19d ago
What are you talking about? I love nothing more than to steam myself at a structure fire and then after everyone takes their turn at ripping my limbs off and dipping them in melted butter.
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u/BlitzieKun Career, Tx 19d ago
This is either a crab wearing human skin, or a r/Rimworld player.
It could also be both.
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u/Rude_Hamster123 Dirtbag 19d ago
I want to say that if wildland rig drenching systems were all that effective you’d see a lot more of them in California. I’ve heard of them in Australia but that’s about it. Seems like pissing into a hurricane, to me.
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u/efcso1 Former wearer of birdshit on my shoulders 19d ago
They can make a massive difference but, like everything, they're not a panacea. There's been testing done by the CSIRO on the effectiveness of different types of sprays. This is fairly recent: https://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/articles/2023/november/fire-truck-burnovers In addition the Bushfire CRC has been evaluating their performance for 15-odd years, from memory. I've seen what happens in a burnover without them, and been in a burnover with them, and I know which I prefer personally. YMMV.
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u/no-but-wtf 18d ago
They’re our last resort. You never want to have to use them. But we’ve lost enough firefighters in burnovers that we know they save lives when they’re needed.
They are relatively new in Australia; California will catch up.
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u/Rude_Hamster123 Dirtbag 18d ago
Here’s hoping. American fire service can be pretty resistant to change. and I say this as a fan of smooth bores and the n5a.
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u/no-but-wtf 18d ago
Oh don’t worry we are too. Always seems to end up that someone has to die for regulations to get changed.
There’s some good footage on YouTube of the drenching systems saving some arses in the 2015 SA Pinery Fire, and frankly I don’t care how much money it costs to install them, I only need to see one life saved for it to be worth it.
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u/Catahooo 19d ago
Completely inconceivable that any country could know how to do things better than the US!
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u/Rude_Hamster123 Dirtbag 18d ago
Well Id like to think that the state of California would catch onto a good idea but those systems probably cost quite a lot. Probably cheaper to just replaced a sizzled rig and crew here and there.
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u/efcso1 Former wearer of birdshit on my shoulders 18d ago
It always surprised me that USA has 'expected losses' or 'acceptable losses' that they factor into these kinds of operations. Kinda wild, but after having lost whole crews in burnovers there was a lot of impetus to try to avoid it ever happening again. It's also relevant that the vast majority of our bushfire crews are all volunteers, which adds weight to the prevention side of the scale.
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u/Cixin97 19d ago
Why would it work better in an industrial setting?
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u/RoughDraftRs 19d ago
Industrial firefighters wear proximity gear when they fight fires defensively the main heat issue is radiant which can be more reflected. Think about how we spray water on to exposures like siding.
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u/tomlaw4514 19d ago
Pretty effective to get steamed all over your body
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u/HolyDiverx 19d ago
we can tell how well it worked because we don't use them today
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u/Gophurkey 18d ago
I dunno, this guy is clearly not on fire, so it seems pretty effective to me
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u/HolyDiverx 18d ago
that's a point I didn't consider. wise I'll have to see if my chief will let me put a bresnan nozzle on my head
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u/kcfdr9c 19d ago
Dunno. You like steam burns?
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u/HomerJSimpson3 19d ago
No, but I do like steamed ham.
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u/MakeChipsNotMeth 19d ago
At this time of year?
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u/FuturePrimitiv3 19d ago
Localized entirely within your kitchen?!
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u/axelxan 19d ago
I read a lot of comments saying it would steam you. Pardon my lack of knowledge but how is it worse than hot air?
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u/vamatt 19d ago edited 19d ago
Water conducts heat much better than air.
Another thing not to try - a wet oven mitt will no longer protect your hand.
Edit to add
Something you can try - go into a a sauna or sweat lodge (the kind with the scoop for water to throw on the stones) You’ll fee warm when it’s dry, but will absolutely heat up once you start making steam. If you over do it, a sauna or sweat lodge can actually get dangerous
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u/Ff0815ger 19d ago
As far as i have the history of german fire fighting back in my mind this model was discontinued because ist was made of metal. The fire department of Hamburg later used the same type of apparatus but with design of the berlin fire department until the first scba systems came up roughly 10-20 years later. But most german fire departments of that time did exterior attacks or skipped the fancy technical solutions against smoke and did the fire fighting without any protection against smoke.
Also the fires didnt burn that hot and smokey back there. If i can trust the memorys of the old dudes in my department, then i would say around the 60/70s did the typical structure fire changed significantly because of the use of plastic in furniture. Most German fire departments in my area started to seriously use scba systems in the late 50s early 60s
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u/PassengerBubbly9087 19d ago
The suit is not a good idea, but in Germany we are having something at some of our jet pipes called "mannschutz" (meaning man protection) which creates a wide water cone in addition to the focused water beam. This works very good for open field fires (in my opinion).
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u/Spooksnav foyrfiter/ay-ee-em-tee 19d ago
Not enough water. With the old type of suits, that shit would steam you like a clam.
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u/billwater24 18d ago
I see it differently than everyone else I guess. For this being from the early 1900’s, I call it innovative as hell. Someone who invented it was at least experimenting with ways to protect firefighters. Nothing here says this was actually deployed. This could be from a test run or something. Gotta have plenty of bad ideas to find the good ones!
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u/Ok-Schedule-2378 19d ago
Perfect for when I want a fog pattern directly on top of my head at all times.
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u/RentAscout 19d ago
You ain't making steam pointing water down on the floor. You'd boil if it was that hot. It's this poor guy's neck being pushed in all sorts of ways by the water pressure. Fuck that.
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u/TLunchFTW FF/EMT 18d ago
I took a while for me to realize he is also wearing scba. I couldn’t imagine my FD ever having the money to be this high tech lmao
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u/AgileAstronaut8651 15d ago
Would 100% turn you into a steamed vegetable. Also if water is hard to come by in your area, this isn’t gonna do.
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u/Regayov 19d ago
Looks like something out of Bioshock