This past weekend the Marketing and Sales team here at Key Safety had the privilege of providing the personal protection equipment (PPE) for the fire fighters at the Extrication Fire Rescue Academy in Katy, Texas. Have you ever wondered how fire fighters are prepared for the situations they endure while on duty? How they stay safe in the environments they encounter? Let me dive into our experience this weekend with firefighters from all over the great state of Texas.
How would you feel if you were in an accident and the emergency responders had no experience in assisting you? Sometimes it’s easy to take for granted that these men and women are trained and have the proper equipment to help you and them out of danger. Key Safety was approached by a concerned firefighter regarding extrication gloves. The challenge with an extrication glove is that it needs to be able to face MANY hazards, such as glass, metal, impact, abrasion, and much more as every accident is different and contains different hazards for the fire fighter. The concerned fire fighter was currently using a well-known extrication glove with a cut resistance level of a two! If you have read the last three weeks of blogs regarding our glove program and the standardized testing for gloves you would know that seems very low for all of the hazards the glove is supposed to protect them from. Key Safety gave the firefighter several pairs of gloves, all with a cut level of four or higher, to try in his job role.
Unbeknownst to us, this firefighter was actually the fire chief of Pattison Volunteer Fire Department and sits on many committees for local firefighters and the Katy Rescue Academy. The Chief went back to his department and put those gloves through some rigorous testing. His department took a blade across the gloves, they even put butter on the gloves and ran hoses through them to see how the grip lasted. They then took the gloves into the field and came back to us with two winners: The Lift Rigger XT and the Lift Rigger Hi-Viz with Kevlar palm! The Chief took the winners back to his committee and showed them the results.
(Rigger XT, shown above) (Rigger Hi-Viz with Kevlar Palm)
Key Safety was contacted and asked to attend the academy and provide them with these glove options for their students and instructors. Last year the students were ripping through their gloves within the first few hours of training. Key Safety is proud to say that there were NO failures reported!! It was an honor to help protect the men and women that are always there to protect us and our families!
Does your department have similar issues? Contact Key Safety and let us help you and your team stay safe!!