How long can your 2215 psi bottle last?

[fireflyer]

At our Smoke Divers course we had a couple of firefighters make their 2215 psi air bottles last over 2 hours. Now this was a perfectly working scba, full, and under resting conditions (under a tree resting), but it illustrated the point that when trapped and trained properly, a firefighter can conserve their air and last longer than the 10-15 minutes normally allotted for the 30 minute rated bottles. Has anyone else experimented with durations during training? How long have you seen these bottles last?

[blackb16]

two to three hours when needed is typical

[smokeeater51]

I'd say that someone has the "skip breathing" method down pretty well. I have gone over an hour while doing odd jobs around the station.
I have heard though, that skip breathing can actually be harmful because you are depriving your body of the constant O2 intake, and can end up hyperventilating. That is just hear-say though, but it was from a couple of SCUBA instructors.

[Dalmatian90]

CT Fire Academy formula is basically:
"30" minute bottle on 1/4 pressure left
(Doesn't matter 2216 or 4500psi -- they both carry the same volume of air in the 30 minute cylinders)

Firefighters do calastynics (sp?) for 15 minutes to get their heart rate/breathing rate up

Most firefighters can take that last "5" minutes of air and make it last 20 minutes or more.

Their record a few years ago was 58:30 on a quarter tank & elevated heart rate when started. You usually see the very long times from people in exceptional cardio-vascular shape...i.e. marathoners.