Is Your Department Complying with the NFPA 1404 Air Management Policy?

空气managem的主题ent has become very popular over the past several years, and rightly so. Structural firefighters’ actions inside the fire building are limited by the air they bring with them on their backs. If a firefighter runs out of air inside the immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH) environment, there is a good chance that he will be seriously injured or killed.

In recent months, there have been some excellent articles in this magazine about emergency breathing techniques firefighters can use when they run low on air; about how important firefighters’ air supplies are inside a large “big box” store and warehouse; and about creating a tradition of safety, in part by managing your air supply based on the size of the fire structure.

All of these points are well made and are important aspects of air management. However, what seems to be missing in the current discussion of air management is the new section of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1404, Standard for Fire Service Respiratory Protection Training, which mandates that firefighters be out of the hazard area before their low-air alarm activates. And, this begs the question: Is your fire department following the air management policy spelled out in the NFPA 1404 standard? If not, your fire department is not following national standards and could be held at fault in a court of law if a firefighter were to be injured or killed because of the failure to follow the current NFPA standard. We have only to look at the recent, tragic events in a major East Coast fire department to see what can happen when the NFPA standards are not followed—in this case, NFPA 1403, Standard on Live Fire Training Evolutions.