Last week I had the rare opportunity to hang out with a company of firefighters. I was doing research for my product design class, where we are designing personal protective equipment (PPE) for firefighters.
The guys welcomed us in and were very friendly, no doubt bolstered by the Steelers superbowl win the night before. Before we could even ask, they had us putting on their gear, self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and all. Damn. This stuff is heavy, bulky, and the mask made me claustrophobic just standing there. The guys did their best to talk us through situations they encounter while wearing all this gear. Its amazing. These guys hear an alarm, jump in their clothes, and zoom off, not really knowing what to expect, talk about stressful. In the case of an actual fire, they basically do everything by touch, its very hard to see and hear in a fire. Firefighters deserve more credit.
The firefighters gave my team a lot of good information to digest, and I hope we can come back to them with a prototype soon.