Where's your PASS?

[SFD-129-3]

Im curious as to where others wear their pass device. Ours are on the SCBA, positioned almost next to the bottle valve. I see good and bad points to this spot: If I go face down, the pass is up. If I go down on my back, odds are good I will land on my bottle and not smother the alarm. However, with coat, mask and everything else on, I must say I forget to turn it on more times than not(we have the MSA Firefly). I think the shoulder strap would be a better spot, but get outvoted by the others. Whats your input?

[EFDems841]

ON the new survivair's that my dept runs with, the PASS alarms are built into the unit. They are mounted on the left side, in the area of your collarbone. They turn on automatically when the unit it pressurized. It's a nice feature, but sucks when your standing around waiting to go in and your air is on. you have to keep moving around so the alarm doesn't sound.

[This message has been edited by EFDems841 (edited 06-19-2001).]

[spo0k]

We use the MSA packs with the integrated pass device. Works well, but we have the reduntant low air alarm as well, which is quite annoying..

[Truckie5553]

We wear ours on the waist straps of the SCBA but i think that all pass devices should be up on the chest area for the following reason. We all know that there is gonna be times that we forget to activate that PASS just because we have other things on our mind and just arent focusing on it. Now in this case if something happens and you become trapped on the side your PASS is on and your other arm was hurt or broken how would you get to the PASS. If it is on your chest area you could get to it even with a broken arm or if you could get your arm somewhat free you would be able to easily reach it. Just a thought i tried out a couple of weeks ago. Everyone should give this a try. Put yourself in a tight area and lay on one side and try to get to your PASS, then do it again and try it in 0 visibility. You will be surprised of the difficulty you will have doing this drill.



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Captain James Collier
McMahan Fire Rescue
KCTCS Area 6 Instructor

[WillB]

ours are on the waist strap, they are activated as soon as the bottle is removed from the bracket (by means of tether) They won't shut off until the clip from tbe bracket is back on

[cfr3504]

Ours are on the shoulder strap. Some are Super Pass II's. that activate when we take them off the truck, by a "key" being pulled out. Others are old PAL III that have to be manually turned on. My old department, usually always put the pass on the waist strap, opposite of the regulator.

[chief462]

we have the msa fireflys. we wear them on the shoulder strap of our scba. we have found that when you are down on all 4's working in a fire ,your uper body moves more than your waist so you get less pra alarms and also it is easy to get to if you need to manually activate it.

[Fire29_1999]

We also run the Super passII on the shoulder strap, very annoying when standing around or where we change bottles all the alarms going off and no way quite them short of putting in bracket!

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Stay safe

[SCNOZZLEMAN]

Our PASS Alarms are on our shoulder straps, where you pull down to tighten them. We have several diffrent brands most are the SUPER PASS. We have had no problems with them there...........Stay safe

[Tanker06]

We're using Scott 5.0's, and they're integrated into the system. They activate as soon as you turn on the air. Only problem, like someone else said, if you're standing around in a staging area, etc, you have to keep doing the "wiggle the butt" maneuver to keep it from sounding. Sort of a pain, but on the other hand, it's one less thing to have to remember.

Jerry


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HazMat
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We gotta be nuts...we're running in when the rats & roaches are running out!
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Disclaimer:
These are my opinions, and only mine, and do not reflect the views of my department.
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Let No Victim's Ghost Say That We Didn't Try

[M1NFD]

Hanging on the hook under my gear. We didnt really integrate a good hook onto our gear when we got itas we planned to integrate into the SCBA. Still need the pass though for wildland fires, and we dont wear turnout coats for that, so I will be hanging it from a carabeener for the beltloop.