CFD: Update
By Shannon in News on Jan 19, 2007 8:45PM
Sometimes, in the course of covering news stories with our hard-hitting, ultra-professional blog style, we at Chicagoist hear straight from the horse’s mouth. Or, in this case, we hear from a horse of a different color. You might recall our post from Wednesday concerning new gear for firefighters that had holes burned into them in the line of fire (get it?). In a rebuttal move, we received an e-mail from a representative of Lion Apparel, the company that supplied Chicago’s best with their new uniforms. Attached was a formal letter that the author said was also being sent to the Sun-Times, propagators of the original story.
Lion took umbrage at the fact that a union official struck down the product as a failure. According to president Stephen Schwartz:
The analysis showed that the damage was the result of prolonged exposure to molten metal at temperatures in excess of 2800 degrees F. The human body begins to sustain first-degree burns when the skin reaches only about 120 degrees, yet the Chicago firefighters walked away totally unharmed.
(Aside: So we were right when we originally said 1000°C. Holla!)
Schwartz goes on to say that holes were not a failure, since the avoidance of personal injury is paramount; as the story itself noted, only the outer layer of pants was damaged in both cases, leaving the thermal layer untouched. Lion Apparel serves a multitude of cities worldwide, including “seven of the top 10 major fire departments,” as well as the military. With such a pedigree, we feel props must be served; yet we return to the original story and read about how, when polled, union reps claim the firefighters would have chosen a different outfitter. Even if they had, we’ve been assured, exposure to molten metal over a period of time would result in damage to any outfit.
The most important thing is that no matter who equips the firefighters or what dangerous situation they end up in, that they get the life-saving protection they sorely need.
Image courtesy of T Fish.