Company is asking for money to develop improved fire shelter

Yarnell Hill Fire shelter
The remains of a fire shelter used on the Yarnell Hill Fire. The aluminum foil has been completely burned off, exposing the silica cloth. From the Yarnell Hill Fire report: “The burned remnants of a fire shelter that was recovered from the Yarnell Hill Fire deployment site shows signs of extremely high heat. The photo was taken during equipment inspection.”

A company is launching a social media campaign today, asking for donations to help them develop an improved fire shelter, a pup tent like enclosure that can serve as a last resort for wildland firefighters entrapped by fire.

James Moseley, founder and CEO of SunSeeker, hopes to raise $150,000 through Indiegogo, according to a press release, to build shelters with a ceramic fiber material he licensed from NASA. For the last six months he has had a campaign on Gofundme where $15,000 of his $150,000 goal has been raised.

“While previous models have been kept in a bag and were designed to be removed by hand, the Fire Blanket will be worn as a backpack, and can be deployed like a wingsuit”, Mr. Moseley said. “The packing and deploying mechanisms are being designed by Rigging Innovations, the leaders in wingsuit development.”

The existing fire shelters used by the land management agencies in the United States are made from silica cloth and aluminum foil sewed together with quartz and fiberglass thread. The problem with these materials is that quartz thread becomes brittle and can break at 2,000°F, aluminum foil will melt at 1,220°F, and silica cloth also becomes brittle at 2,000°F, according to data in the Yarnell Fire investigation report, the fire on which 19 firefighters were killed after deploying their fire shelters.  The outer foil shells were 95 to 100 percent burned away on 17 of the 19 shelters, while the foil on the other two was 80 percent burned away. The heat-resistant quartz and fiberglass thread failed in some areas on most of the shelters, causing some of the seams to separate, allowing super-heated gasses to enter. The failure of the seams and the brittle silica cloth found in some areas indicates that the temperature of the fire was over 2,000°F, hotter than many fires.

Mr. Moseley’s press release announcing the social media campaign said his shelter “can withstand temperatures up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, will outperform the current shelters used by our nation’s firefighters by three times”.

However, on his website (http://sunseekerfireblanket.com/)  and Facebook page, he writes:

Utilizing NASA technology, we will develop a fire shelter that will give fire fighters over 2500°F degrees of protection!

On Mr. Moseley’s Gofundme page, he said:

We’ve collaborated closely with individuals that work with NASA and the National Forestry Service to develop a product with better fire protection than what it currently available, with our ultimate goal being that this product helps save lives.

There is no “National Forestry Service” in the United States. Mr. Moseley is probably referring to the U.S. Forest Service.

We first wrote about Mr. Mosely’s efforts in November of 2013 when he started asking for money.

A better fire shelter is needed. We hope that Mr. Moseley or someone else can come up with a better design that meets the requirements. In May of this year the U.S. Forest Service’s Washington office announced that they directed their Technology and Development Center to conduct a three-year review of the fire shelter system, which includes the fire shelter, fireline pack, practice shelters, and training. The Forest Service said the review “had been scheduled to begin in 2015, but due to factors both internally and externally, the WO-FAM requested this review process start in 2014.”

The finished product and everything that goes into it has to be high temperature resistant, foldable into a small space, easy to quickly deploy, durable enough to be carried by firefighters for years, affordable, and not too heavy.

Some will say that firefighters should avoid a situation where a fire shelter, a last resort, is needed. Of course that is true, and no firefighter should DEPEND on a shelter to save their lives. And, no firefighter should DEPEND on aircraft to serve as a lookout, drop life-saving water or retardant, or extricate them before an entrapment or at the end of a shift. But, firefighters, in spite of their best intentions, training, and wildland firefighting experience, sometimes find themselves in situations where they need a fire shelter.

That is the reality. We should take steps to improve their chances of survival.

Typos, let us know HERE, and specify which article. Please read the commenting rules before you post a comment.

Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.

8 thoughts on “Company is asking for money to develop improved fire shelter”

  1. The “problem” with the private sector developing a new shelter is, the market is so small that the return is negligible if at all. As Bill has previously repoted in these pages, the Missoula Technology Development Center is working on a new shelter. Anything new is going to have to come out of MTDC or the government is going to have to fund another agency or quasi government agency like Batelle Northwest or a University to come up with something new.

    0
    0
  2. May not have the WUI nor some of uphill drainages that seem to get US crews into trouble……

    The training of firecrews could really use an overhaul as would the enforcement of both forestry practices at the Fed and State levels to include ” forcing” new building codes etc…..we all know what opposition this would create in all circles…..

    Otherwise……. US will carry on……more FLA, Lessons Learned, entrapment reports, etc are inevitable……..

    0
    0
  3. Maybe the “Canadian solution” as mentioned above might have some merit, especially when you look at the stats regarding wildland firefighters killed in Canada in the last 25 years.

    Why Canada does not use fire shelters?
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/why-emergency-fire-shelters-aren-t-used-in-canada-1.1319366

    I think one quote from that article really sums it up nicely ” the decision (to not use fire shelters in BC) was made because the province’s firefighters are never put in a situation where they would need to deploy a fire shelter”.

    Having fought fire in Canada as part of the NW Compact Agreement, I can attest that they really mean that when they say it there. I have seen numerous situations there in which firefighters were pulled out of a situation or never deployed at all due to what they considered unsafe. However, many of these same situations that I witnessed would have been just another day a the office for most wildland firefighters. Overall, they are generally less aggressive with fire suppression and I would say that their “threshold” for what they deem to be unsafe is much much lower than American counterparts and as a result – no fire shelters and no deaths.

    Australia has looked at using fire shelters as well. After looking at all of the evidence, and historical incidents of fire shelter use in the US they came to following conclusions:

    “There is no evidence that the deployment of personal fire shelters will increase the safety of wildfire fighters. The evidence remains that their use may actually increase the risks and that avoidance is preferred to a mechanical safety device that is only partially successful.”

    http://www.afac.com.au/docs/position/fire-shelters-affirm-use-not-recommended-dp.pdf?sfvrsn=14

    Instead of better fire shelters, we need a complete revamp of how we look at wildland firefighting with regard to acceptable risk to our people. Despite all of the training, LCES, 10&18, decades of experience, and the best fire shelters ever used to date we are still are getting people killed and injured every year because we violate the simple rule quoted above of “firefighters are never put in a situation where they would need to deploy a fire shelter”.

    Until we get that right, the best fire shelters in the world are not going to prevent people getting killed and seriously injured every year in American wildland fires and it is only a matter of time before another Yarnell.

    0
    0
    1. The “Canadian solution” is very workable for Canada, but they don’t have anywhere near the WUI component in their wildfires that we have allowed to develop in the lower 48. Look at fire fatalities, and the “WUI factor” shows up in many cases. We have the 24 hour News coverage, polarized politicians, and a public that feels “entitled” to 100% fire protection no matter how stupid they are when selecting building sites. We can never “fire shelter” our way out of the danger of the high intensity heat that occurs on events like South Canyon or Yarnell, and don’t have the political will and managerial courage to remove firefighters from harm’s way.
      I wish I knew the answer?

      0
      0
      1. The amount of WUI shouldn’t be a factor in the debate about whether or not to carry a fire shelter. After all, how many times have we all agreed that firefighter and public safety is the top priority? The issue is firefighter safety, not which values merit higher- or lower-risk tactics.

        TJH adresses the crux of the matter above – it’s the culture of US wildland firefighting that is hazardous. Witness the video of the Beaver Fire entrapment – “Aw hell this is NOTHIN’!’. You can say that was situational or that was just a way to buck up the troops or you can say this or that, but it’s a perfect example of the hazardous culture of US firefighting that I’ve witnessed over and over and over and over.
        Thanks for the link to the afac doc TJH. Hopefully after the inevitable knee-jerk reactions it will be read thoughtfully.

        0
        0
      2. You would have to tear down a awful lot of homes, both primary and vacation, to remove the WUI component of wildland fires. That would include places like Oakland CA or Tahoe, where whole cities were built in fire-prone areas.

        0
        0
  4. I also had that question along with if it has a pull cord could it get snagged in heavy brush or by limbs and deploy accidently.
    I to believe WFF need a better shelter They have needed it for years clear back in 1973 we recommended a better shelter.

    0
    0
  5. While I applaud any efforts to improve firefighter safety, how is one to wear a “backpack” -style shelter and still lug a fire pack with gear/water/lunch/spike supplies etc…? And how will this “wingsuit” deploy faster than the current iteration? I like the idea of increased heat resistance, but see no reason to significantly alter shelter design or how it is carried. Just my .02, and there’s always the Canadian solution…

    0
    0

Comments are closed.