In away i fell this thread is a bit stupid that we even need SOP or SOG or rules or what ever on the wearing of uniforms can't we just decide for ourselves?
Well for our brigade and others in our Group this has been an issue since PBI was introduced.
There are many in our Group that feel PBI should be worn at all non rural incidents, just for the greater level of protection it affords in a range of situations.
As Hicksflat pointed out though, that does leave some with and some without the increased protection. Not that this is anything new - in my brigade B.A. operators wear structure helmets to all jobs whilst everyone else is issued a rural helmet, so disparity amongst a brigade is not a new issue.
We pushed the point about wearing PBI to jobs a lot in the early days and got shot down severely, our Group Officers then took the issue to the Regional management meetings and we were told that all Region One Group Officers had agreed that until a policy from HQ is put together all brigades in the Region will only wear PBI to structure related incidents, obviously though some groups were still doing there own thing - we probably would have too if it wasn't for our Group Officers pushing us so hard about it.
The problem for us is that we often get turned out to an MVA or rubbish bin fire and then get a run on to a structure related job - so it means carrying two sets of gear to every call. The physical limitations of six crew each with a set of PBI and Nomex are obvious - the space in our 24P cab is small enough as it is.
What do you do??
The worst case scenario for us is to arrive at a going house fire job in Nomex, do you go in wearing PPE that does not meet the Australian Standards and risk an injury or do you wear PBI to all non rural jobs and manage the heat associated issues arising from that - I think I will take the later.
For info the poster that HQ is bringing out on the use of PBI says that you can only wear it to structure related incidents, however the OIC can use their discretion to wear it to any other jobs, I will be exercising my discretion a lot.
One needs to ask why this document wasn't distributed with the gear, it would have saved a few hassles.