SCBA
Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus or "SCBA"
The Riverhead Fire Department requires that their firefighters don an SCBA whenever they operate in an environment that is, or has the possibility of being, immediately dangerous to life and health.The SCBA in service with our department are the "Scott" brand 4.5 (4500 psi) Air-Paks manufactured by Scott Technologies, Inc.
With today's most advanced design in SCBA, a single "Scott-Pak" with its composite, carbon fiber air bottle, aluminum frame and Kevlar straps weighs in at around 30 lbs. This is a tremendous development from just over a decade ago when there were still heavy steel bottles, steel frames and nylon straps that tended to melt from the heat. The high-pressure air bottles have developed from heavy steel, to fiberglass-wrapped aluminum, to carbon fiber wrapped aluminum, to the latest in technology, carbon fiber wrapped graphite, this advancement giving the firefighter the strongest possible container at the least possible weight. In this instance strength means safety, after all, these bottles are holding breathing air at 4500 psi, and any defect or weakness exposed under the extreme heat of firefighting would certainly be a disaster for the firefighter and anyone else that happens to be around him or her. To show how far we've come, here's a look at where we've been...
Early Breathing ApparatusThis primitive equipment was one of the earliest efforts to provide firefighters with protection against breathing smoke and toxic fumes. The bellows was used outside the smoky or toxic environment and fresh air was blown through a hose to a firefighter wearing the mask. Comparing this equipment to modern SCBA illustrates the progress made in the past 80 years.
Today's cutting-edge technology is so far from the primitive designs used in the early 1900's that it's hard to believe anyone actually would have worn them back then, but they did. Another century from now, firefighters will probably be wondering how we managed to survive with the "primitive" devices we are using today!