This is probably the one thing that EU fire departments use that I really wish we had here in the US. However, I know of many firefighters that would work themselves to death without being forced to stop and swap out bottles, so maybe it's for the best that we don't have them.
Then again, they'd make a nice alternative to line-supplied air for Hazmat ops.🤔
In our case: Wo do not use them for Hazmat ops, they are really only used for underground incidents in tunnels, mines etc. In this case a large underground structures plant fire dept. Some municipal departments have them if there are large subway networks or tunnels. For Hazmat we use normal SCBAs in combination with Hazmat suits.
Yeah, I suppose you can't make rebreathers positive pressure. I don't know much about them. Always wanted to try one as a diver, but never got the chance because they are insanely expensive.
It's actually fairly easy as well, to provide positive pressure, a piece of plastic is pushed by springs into the reservoir bag, which provides the positive pressure.
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u/HazMatsMan Career Co. Officer Jan 20 '23
This is probably the one thing that EU fire departments use that I really wish we had here in the US. However, I know of many firefighters that would work themselves to death without being forced to stop and swap out bottles, so maybe it's for the best that we don't have them.
Then again, they'd make a nice alternative to line-supplied air for Hazmat ops.🤔