In a real-world fire emergency, chances are that workers will need to flee to safety, so it is critical that FR workwear continue to provide coverage and allow mobility to protect workers after a flash fire or arc flash.
Millions of people across the globe go to work each day in environments with a heat or fire hazard. For these workers, flame-resistant (FR) or flame-retardant treated (FRT) protective garments are designed to provide a last line of protection against short-duration fires. Many different fibers can be used to make FR or FRT garments, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. With so many options, it can be difficult to select the best product for each specific job function.
There is growing industry awareness about the importance of knowing how a garment will perform not only at the moment of heat or fire exposure, but in those vital seconds just after exposure when an employee needs to escape from the emergency.
Safety Expert Shares Process A highly regarded industry safety expert who specifies and selects garments for a Fortune 50 oil and gas company recently shared with me the process he uses for FR garment selection. Like most safety professionals, he considers certification to key industry test standards and published performance results as a minimum requirement.
He prefers to witness actual burn testing of the garments and analyzes the results for himself. But he doesn't just stop there because he knows that the test methods simply establish minimums for performance and the live burn tests are conducted on a stationary manikin. As he explained, in the real world, a flash fire or arc flash is a dynamic event that either generates motion in the individual from the pressure wave or blast or from the worker's reaction to protect himself as he flees from the event. That's why he now considers the state of the garment post burn as a mandatory part of the selection process.
Is the garment still intact so it continues to offer protection? Is it flexible enough that, in a moment of crisis, an employee still has mobility to quickly escape heat and flames? If the garment passes this test, he then relies on extended-duration field wear trials to confirm a garment's durability, ease of cleaning, comfort, fit, style, and buy-in from workers who will be wearing the garments on a daily basis.
This article originally appeared in the May 2019 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
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