Donning and doffing, or getting dressed in a hurry

Imagine for a moment that you are a man getting ready to attend a wedding. You hop out of the shower and quickly run a comb through your hair (sorry ladies; it really is that easy for us). Then you begin getting dressed:

— Put on underwear, undershirt, and socks;

— Put on dress shirt;

— Put on pants, tuck shirt in;

— Put on belt;

— Put on tie;

— Put on jacket and maybe a pocket square to match the tie;

— Put wallet, keys, comb, phone, and lucky rabbit’s foot in pockets; and

— Put on shoes.

Pretty straightforward, right? Now imagine you had to do all that in two minutes or less. Think you could do it?

The reason I ask is because I’m doing something very similar in my volunteer firefighter training. It’s called “donning and doffing,” and it is a huge skill that all firefighters need to master. Let’s talk about donning first.

At the firehouse, each firefighter has a locker or cubby where all their “turnout gear” sits waiting for the next call-out. This is the fire-safety clothing and other equipment that we use when responding to a call.

The idea with donning, if you make it all the way to Class A interior firefighter, is to put it all on and be “breathing air” — that is, breathing from a backpack mounted compressed air tank known as SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) — in two minutes or less.

I’m currently training to be a Class B exterior firefighter, but I’m aspiring to Class A, so I have practiced donning all the gear many times at this point. My best time was 2 minutes and 25 seconds, so I have some work to do.

Why is there such an emphasis on getting fully dressed in such a short time? Well, a fire can double in size every 30 seconds. Truly, when talking about fighting fires, every second counts. Donning all the gear rapidly and efficiently can be a matter of life and death.

Donning

When it comes to donning, each firefighter has little tricks and techniques that help him or her beat the two-minute deadline. I’m so new at this that I’m still finding my way. But here is the procedure I use.

This assumes you are standing in your street clothes, with all your turnout gear laying on the floor in front of you:

— Remove your shoes (slip-on, slip-off shoes are the way to go);

— Put on hood (looks like a ski mask that also covers the neck);

— Step into firefighting boots;

— Pull up bunker pants (they were stored around the boots);

— Fasten waist closures;

— Pull up and fasten suspenders;

— Put on jacket (normal way or overhead flip);

— Secure jacket front up to neck;

— Secure jacket neck protector;

— Turn on the SCBA pack air supply valve;

— Place arms in pack straps, throw pack over your head, secure it on shoulders;

— Jump up in the air while at the same time tugging shoulder straps down to secure backpack high up;

— Tighten pack waist belt;

— Put on face mask and tighten the straps to make an airtight seal;

— Tug hood over face mask on top of head;

— Put on helmet, tighten straps;

— Put on gloves; and

— Install MMR (Mask-Mounted Regulator) from pack onto face mask and rotate ninety degrees.

If you did all of that correctly — hopefully in two minutes or less — you are now breathing air from the tank mounted on your back, and you are ready to go inside burning buildings or attend other events like car fires where toxic gasses are being produced.

Depending on how fit you are and how much air you consume, you have anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes of breathable air to work with.

When you’re on air and running low, the pack has several ways to warn you and your fellow firefighters, from flashing lights to ear piercing alarms. It is not uncommon for a firefighter with his air running low to have his dwindling air tank replaced with a full one by another firefighter so he or she can continue the job.

Also, if one firefighter is running low on air, he or she can piggyback air from another firefighter with a hose and coupling that is included with the pack. That’s a great feature that can potentially save a fellow firefighter’s life.

Each pack also has a PASS (Personal Alert Safety System) alarm. Just hit the red button and a shrieking alarm sound lets others know you need help. What a great feature that is.

There are some guys in Guilderland who have been in volunteer firefighting since they were teenagers. A couple of them told me, when they were young, they could do the donning in less than one minute. Imagine that!

I don’t have the advantage of youth anymore, but there is this mantra from none other than the United States Navy Seals: “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” My hope is that a lot of practice will get me to smooth, which will then get me, hopefully, to fast. We shall see.

Doffing

Now let’s talk about “doffing.” This is taking all the clothing and equipment off, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

If you were at a fire or other event where toxic gasses were produced, virtually all of your gear needs to be washed and dried. Thankfully, the firehouse has a washer and dryer just for this purpose.

Once your gear is cleaned, dried, and checked out, the idea is to replace it in your stall or cubby such that it is ready to go again at a moment’s notice: pants lowered around boots, helmet and mask ready to go, gloves and hood within easy reach, etc.

The more orderly you are, the more efficient you can be. I just hope no one from the firehouse comes to my house and sees my messy closet, haha.

Currently there are several of us here in Guilderland training at the same time. The training is at a different location, so when we go we have to take packs off a designated apparatus (truck).

This is not really a problem — the remaining trucks have plenty of packs in case a call-out should occur — but in a perfect world there would be training packs available, so in-service packs wouldn’t have to be disturbed.

Unfortunately, everything in firefighting is large, heavy, and expensive. I doubt there are many volunteer fire companies who have the luxury of providing duplicate equipment just for training purposes.

You might be thinking at this point, these packs must be replaced periodically for safety reasons, so why not just save the old, worn-out packs for training? Well, since air packs are critical for the safety of working firemen and firewomen, it would never be appropriate to train with worn-out equipment.

There is just too much at stake. This business is hard enough as it is without worrying about using equipment that is past its service life.

The right thing to do

If you have any interest in becoming a volunteer firefighter, you should go down to your local firehouse and talk to the fine people there. You may think you’re too old or don’t have enough skill, experience, or time.

Trust me, I’m old and I had zero experience in this area. If I can do it, so can you.

Volunteer firefighting companies also have auxiliaries, open to women and men also, for folks who just want to support the fire company by helping out with meals, supporting us at events, and many other ways. The auxiliary rocks.

Even if you don’t feel like volunteering, be sure to support those chicken barbecues, Sunday morning breakfasts, flower sales, and other fundraisers that volunteer fire companies frequently do. Every little bit helps in firefighter outreach, retention, training and many other ways. Supporting your local volunteer fire company is just the right thing to do.

Last night, I had just crawled into bed after returning from three hours of firefighter training. Shortly thereafter, the pager let me know that power lines were down at one of the local golf courses.

I got out of bed, put on my pants and shirt (backwards, I might add) and shot down to the firehouse. By the time I got there, one truck had already left, and my crew was on the second truck raring to go when we were notified by radio that the scene had been secured, the utility company was on their way, and we could stand down.

When the first truck returned to the station, we washed it and then had an impromptu staff meeting. All of this after 10 p.m. on a weeknight, when many of these unbelievably dedicated men and women had to work the next day.

The fact that there are so many folks, just regular people, who are willing to get out of bed at all hours of the night to help their fellow community members just blows me away. Good on you, my fellow volunteer firefighters.

I sure hope I can learn to do my donning in under two minutes. Wish me luck.