So having retired, a few years later I strangely found my way back in the world of firefighting albeit now in the Health and Safety team. Due to my experiences and past ventures, I found myself back in the familiar world of contaminants, but what had changed?
Sadly, not as much as I had hoped! In a fire service world full of conflicting priorities, budgets, ingrained cultures and behaviours, this was sort of understandable. But there was, and is, a renewed focus to make things better. With the recently published World Health Organisation report which classified occupational exposure as a firefighter as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1), on the basis of sufficient evidence for cancer in humans. and other documents, this gave me and the service a renewed drive.
So
Where do we start? There’s so much to do! I can’t do this alone! It’s all so expensive! Who do I listen to? We haven’t got any Budget for that! What do I know? It’s not a service priority! It’s just the latest buzzword, right? No one’s listening! It’s just about people or companies trying make a fast buck!
Any of this sound familiar?
With renewed information from conferences/events and listening to heart wrenching stories from colleagues (who I am now pleased to call my friends) it was time to re-educate myself and act.
It was at one of these events something caught my eye, and a chance meeting with Andy and Rob from ultra-protect, who were showcasing an Inbiot Air Quality Monitor which has taken us on a journey, and continues to do so, that neither of us had been on before.
I listened intently on that day to what was probably a sales pitch that had been delivered 100 times before, but something was different here – they seemed genuinely interested and concerned by what I was explaining, the situation that we faced understanding the contaminants levels for our staff and their working environments.
I explained that we had previously had an air quality (39 page) report, but this only gave us a brief snapshot in time, and we needed something more robust, and cost-effective a solution to give us accurate real time data that we could reference and act on.
I distinctly remember hearing the words “we can help you with that” and a couple of weeks later saw Rob at our training centre to see for himself what we faced.
Following discussions and advice we ended up with 7 Monitors with either Wi-Fi or Sim card connectivity and literally within hours of installation we had 24/7 real time visibility (Web app on laptop or on any phone via an app) of what was going on the areas where they had been placed.
The data that this has produced has allowed us to get real time data to understand what is going on, using this to both educate our staff and ensure we can put remedial measures where required to mitigate or reduce the risk.
That all looks very complicated I hear you say, Well I’m no spring chicken and I’m definitely not a 14 year old teenager that can use every electronic platform without even thinking about it, the reporting platform and the ease of using it is for me, a real bonus. Very interactive, just select what parameter you want to see and then press the graph Button and hey presto – it even writes a report if you want it to !
The two readings out of the twelve that are being measured, I tend to focus on PM 2.5 (Particulate Matter) and total V OCs, and it’s really easy to associate the readings with activities being undertaken.
For example, fire house/ container training evolutions ( smoke entering adjacent work spaces) or even when equipment that has been exposed to fire contaminants are left in room and it has not been decontaminated, this is a great learning tool, and you can’t argue with the data.
We also have monitors in a couple of appliance bays – lots of stations around the country have fire kit stowed or Gyms in the bay – its good to see exactly what is going on, and potentially if the building has a building management system (BMS) could link into things like ventilation/extract.
What happens when the bay doors are closed? If the equipment and firekit isn’t clean? or procedures haven’t been followed? how does this fit in with any zoning you might want to put in at station, or already have in place? All helpful to understand if you have the data.
Why stop there? Good question, we are in the process with our good friends from Ultra protect to put a monitor in an officer’s car – having been there in a previous life I’m sure this will give some interesting results, and lots of room for improvement.
We’re also going to run a 6 month side by side trial (install monitors) in one of our newer clean cab appliances and one of our existing appliances with all the BA etc still in the cab.
At the start of this piece, I made some statements/ questions – It’s all so expensive! we don’t have any budget! Well, all of the above hasn’t broken the bank – less than you’d imagine – way less than 5 figures! Including the small ongoing platform cost.
So what else ?
PPE collection points clean/dirty
CleanSpace masks dust canary trials
Shower within hour
Zoning
You can buy all the kit and equipment in the world, but the real challenge is education and culture, challenging behaviours, not walking by, from the newest recruits to the old sweats who’ve seen and done it all. We know way more now and we need to adapt to ensure the health and well-being of our firefighters and their families and loved ones.
None of this work is possible without the hard work and commitment from the whole service, from training, land and property, workshops, Senior Management and many more.
I was pleased to accept the first Invisible risk 2025 fire service champions award on behalf of SFRS from Dany Cotten QFSM and John Lord, recognising all their hard work.
By Ian Ray TechIOSH – Health and Safety Advisor at Surrey Fire and Rescue Service
Retired Station Commander and Service Hazmat lead.
Before Retiring, responsibility for many projects, including, introduction of Off-road wildfire vehicles (Unimogs), Drones, Half Masks to all operational personnel, Gas Detectors to all front-line appliances, and together with my Group Commander the inception of a “clean person concept”