Helmet Chin Straps

[firemoose827 324]

One of the things that I noticed a lot of during my tenure as the dept. Safety Officer was the fact that no one used their chin strap on their helmets. They always have them strapped around the rear brim of the helmet.

This blows my mind, and I cant for the life of me figure out WHY someone refuses to use it, and some of the reasons given me when asked blows my mind even more; ( "It hurts my neck", "Its a pain in the a#@ to put on with gloves over the mask", "Its what FDNY does and its COOL???)

I apologise in advance for ranting about this but in my 20 years in the service I have seen far too many shortcuts being made involving safety gear in substitution for COMFORT.

I was so tired of constantly repeating myself to everyone, especially officers, that the strap is part of the Protective Envelope, ( Or atleast it should be taught that way, Instructors? ) I would simply say that if caught in a situation where there is either a full or partial collapse of a wall or ceiling, the first piece of debris will knock the helmet off, the second will turn you into a vegetable or even worse. But hey, you looked cool!

How many of you notice the same thing in your dept.? Does anyone do the quick drills on a slow drill night, where you practice donning the face mask through the chin strap? Just curious to see how many others have the same problem.

Thanks for letting me vent!!

Moose

[Danger 160]

Probably about 99% of guys I see don't use the chin strap, even worse they wear it behind their head on top of the rear brim. Which to me is kind of like not buttoning your coat, why even bother wearing it.

[HFD750 6]

I don't know I wear my chin strap and was on channel 12 and I had my chin strap on... Now I'm called Chief chin strap...

[BIGRED1 71]

It's easier to just make it long enough to fit on your front brim, that way you mask up, put the helmet on then pull it down under your chin, click on the air supply and off you go. Thats how we were taught at the academy. plus if you look out a window or bump into something hard enough you helmet will fall off.

[Guest]

Mine is now strapped in front of the helmet along the shield and around (if you can picture that) pre adjusted w/some slack & buckled right over the "eye flaps" or whatever you call them along the edge of the helmet. Flip down the flaps, pull down the strap, flip the faps back up, and tighten the strap. I never forget it anymore for some reason...maybee b/c its easier now lol. Maybee that will help some of you guys out....helped me. I picked up on it from some1 else.

Edited June 21, 2007 by NRFDTL11Buff

[x134 46]

Most guys I see on my job have them down. Use to be if it wasn't down you got in trouble. I wear mine all the time.

[firecapt32 282]

HFD750 chin straps are like seat belts--you gotta use them or you might get hurt!!!

[HFD750 6]

HFD750  chin straps are like seat belts--you gotta use them or you might get hurt!!!

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I hear that one!!!!

[antiquefirelt 994]

I guess I'll be a decenting opinion, but I rarely wear my chin strap unless I'm masked up. If I'm masked up I always wear the chin strap! My helmet fit perfect with the ear flaps up and no mask and with a mask and the flaps down. So no mask: no strap, no flap. SCBA Mask on: flap and chinstrap down. We do have a memo stating if the Chief sees your helmet hit the ground you'll wear an orange helmet for a month, after a firefighter lost his helmet from the turntable while looking up and placing the stick. But the strap doesn't stop the helmet from falling off forward when looking down.

BTW: In 2000 We went to the buckle style required on all chinstraps as the Milwaukee style never seemed to really work well as when we mask up all you did was cross the straps and get a 1/2" square of velcro holding the helmet on. We learned this when we hosted the guys from Providence Special Hazards, who taught RIT and Fireground Survival.