fire fighting breathing apparatus

[Kate_uk3]

when a firefighter has used air from their breathing apparatus, how do they re-fill the cylinders? thanks

[jills]

they have equipment back at the station (some sort of pressurised filling system gadgetry!) for doing exactly that. This would be part of the day to day maintenance all watches have to do...checking and servicing BA sets, refilling etc.

[Disco Fever]

Well I think I can answer this for you as I work for a Fire Brigade in Leicester. Each wholetime fire station has a B.A. Compressor which refills the cylinders to a pressure of 207 bar, which around 3000 psi. This is done everytime the B.A. set is used.

[jills]

Compressor..Doh! that was the word I couldn't think of (having a blonde moment there!)! Disco Fever...most of the retained stations in Scotland have compressors too.

[gazzawazza]

Yep, the cylinders are refilled on return to the station but spare cylinders are also carried on appliances. This means that whenever a set is used and a cylinder doesn't have enough air in for another BA job the cylinder can simply be swapped with a full one and the set is ready for use without having to return to the station.

In our brigade we carry one spare cylinder per set but if these are used then we have to return to the station to recharge in which case we wouldn't be available for fire cover until we've done so.

By the way Kate, just in case you don't know what a compressor is (hope I'm not patronising you here) it's basically a mechanical pump which forces the air into the cylinder under pressure packing enough air in to last for approximately 30 minutes.