Analysis of the in-service failure of firemen's breathing apparatus

After a fire in which three firemen were killed, their self-contained breathing apparatus was inspected and several tests performed to find the cause of failure. In full scale simulation of service in an oven it was found that the pressure reduction valve failed above an oven temperature of 75°C: the seals failed and allowed escape of the air in the compressed air cylinders in a very short time. The whole equipment had been tested and approved according to accepted standards, and the tests performed in the present investigations also indicated that the equipment fulfilled the requirements of these standards. The conclusion is that these standards ought to be checked periodically with respect to the service conditions to initiate revisions in time to prevent accidents by failure of equipment.

Keywords:

• Failure Analysis
• Accident
• Firefighter
• Breathing-APPARATUS
• Scba