Firefighters wear a protective nomex hood to cover their ears and other facial skin, a helmet to protect their head, fire jackets to protect their upper body, bunker pants to protect their lower body, and steal toe boots to protect their feet as they enter a raging fire that is consuming a person’s home.
If any of a firefighter’s protective gear gets worn and the safety barrier has been compromised such as a tear, cut, fraying seams, dry rot, suffered damage from a fire, damage from chemicals, or anything that may not give the firefighter good protection when conducting their duties while extinguishing a fire.
Every piece of gear a firefighter wears to protect his body is equally important and needs to be in good condition with exception of a firefighters boots and a firefighters boots needs to be in exceptionally good condition.
Without fire boots in exceptionally good condition firefighter’s feet could get too hot, become burned or severely injured and the firefighter would be out of action until his feet cooled off or the burns on his feet got medical attention.
The fire boots of Firefighter Farmer was damaged while the aerial ladder of truck 5 was being raised during a Mayday Radio Drill held on 01/17/13.
Firefighter Farmer was standing on the second stage of the aerial ladder waiting on a firefighter and the Captain that was standing on the top stage of the ladder to get off the ladder to get on top of the training tower roof.
When the driver and operator of the aerial ladder moved the ladder closer to the building while also raising the ladder, the tip of the fire boots of firefighter Farmer got caught between the rails and ripped the leather on the right boot and cut the leather on the left boot.
This could have been a real Mayday life threatening emergency for fighter Farmer but because of his quick thinking and quick movement of his feet he avoided his feet from being severely injured during the Mayday Radio drill.
After the Mayday Radio drill Firefighter Farmer had to go by supply and get a new pair of firefighting boots.
The boots Firefighter Farmer received was a pair of Thorogood Protective Footwear for Structural Fire Fighting.
Thorogood Protective Footwear for Structural Fire Fighting Boots are union made in Wisconsin USA, meets NFPA standards, and has been in business since 1892.
The Thorogood fire boot sole is made with Vibram Fire Compound #316 and is heat resistance to 475 for 40 minutes, puncture resistant insole, fire resistance, passed NFPA 5905, and NBS Abrasion 125 minimum.
The tempered steal toe inside the Thorogood fire boot can withstand a 75lb impact test and a minimum of 2500lb compression.
The upper part of the Thorogood fire boot is made of full grain waterproof flame and cut resistant leather, fully lined inside with Sympatex waterproof breathable blood borne pathogen resisting barrier.
The Thorogood shoe company also has been providing work boots for our military since World War 11.
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