Lisa Scott
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 12/05) - Saving lives from burning buildings may seem like the toughest part of a firefighter's job, but carrying around all the protective gear required for the task is likely just as hard.

Mike Lowing, lieutenant with the Yellowknife Fire Department, describes the gear worn by firefighters going to fight an apartment fire to give people an idea.

The clothes alone - coat, pants with suspenders, gloves, balaclava and helmet, add about 60 pounds.

Add a radio, breathing apparatus and one hour of compressed air, a metal tool to break through doors and a thermal imaging device to detect heat and that's 100 extra pounds of weight to carry around.

The gear contains everything a firefighter needs to feel safe, says Lowing.

"If you have any openings in your protective clothing, if the fire didn't find its way in the first time, it will the next time," he says.

The clothing is made of Nomex, a combination of fire retardant material and Kevlar that is fire resistant, but not fire proof, which would be too bulky.

Nature of the job

That's because the nature of the job requires running around, staying mobile and even getting on your hands and knees, says Lowing.

"You need gear that is fairly easy to move in," he says.

Another thing needed by a firefighter going into an apartment is a fire hose. A 45-60 metre coil weighs 100 pounds.

The 23 career staff, plus the volunteer firefighters don't just jump into the gear. They have to train to wear it and carry the gender-neutral equipment.

Yellowknife firefighters have a unique climate to work in, dealing with temperature fluctuations of hotter than 25C in the summer to -40C in the dead of winter. That's where the Novex material comes in handy. It has an outer layer, a thermal layer and an inner layer to keep firefighters warm, but it also breathes like Gore-tex material.

The gear isn't cheap either. Each set of protective wear is approximately $2,000, while the breathing apparatus is about $3,000.

The thermal imager, which is usually carried by just one firefighter, is the most expensive piece of gear at $15,000.