Firefighter Mask-Up Challenge

Have you ever had your ears or the side of your face burned in a fire? - Do you know of someone who has? For me it's a YES on both. So when I see fellow Firefighters posting videos on masking up and neglecting to deploy their helmet ear flaps I have to shake my head. Firefighting hoods are the thinnest part of our personal protective equipment (PPE) and usually fit tight and compress on the sides of your face and ears. LAYERING and AIR GAPS can greatly reduce the chance or severity of thermal injury. Your helmet ear flaps are installed for a reason - SO USE THEM!! It may allow you to push through a bad environment in order to make the grab or buy you a few extra seconds to get out of a bad situation. With practice it's only going to add a second or two on your mask up times, but it may save you some pain and scarring in the long run.
Train, Stay Prepared, Be Aggressive, Make the Save - So Others May Live!
Dale G. Pekel

[@FFPM371]

I find sometimes that the hood gets caught up in the helmet strap when bringing up my hood.

[@DALEGPEKEL]

Yeah I use to have the same problem when I first started - I find that if I pull the helmet strap under my chin and below the opening of my hood before I flip the helmet behind my head that helps. I also tend to drop my helmet off to my left side as this is the side that I first grab the opening of my hood on which helps to keep slack in the helmet strap on this side of my head and face, making it easier to find the opening of my hood on the left. When I first don my hood I will push most of the fabric off to my right side behind my head, which helps to reduce grabbing too much fabric and missing the opening when I'm pulling the hood over my head and mask. If this still doesn't work you can try installina a longer helmet strap or switch to the "Arm Sling" method - Keep practicing and good luck!

[@wisetoad]

Do you have any other videos on this? Chin strap must have to be pretty loose to perform it

[@DALEGPEKEL]

Yes the helmet strap is fully extended - If your lid has a short chin strap there are companies that make custom ones that are much longer - which can make the lid flip technique easier to perfrom. Here's a video I made quite a few years ago that breakes down some other tips you can use. It doesn't show or discuss everything I do now, but hopefully it will help: ruclips.net/video/Rnk9tf_vwXs/видео.html