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Local firm's firefighter suit protects from multiple hazards

Nick Curtis, Lion Apparel's vice president for global product development, looks at the Dayton-based company's CB-Xit firefighter protection ensemble, which will soon be available to fire departments across the country. CB-Xit is the first firefighter gear to meet updated standards for protection against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

Jim Witmer/Staff Nick Curtis, Lion Apparel's vice president for global product development, looks at the Dayton-based company's CB-Xit firefighter protection ensemble, which will soon be available to fire departments across the country. CB-Xit is the first firefighter gear to meet updated standards for protection against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Gear meets mark once thought beyond reach

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer Updated 10:49 PM Friday, July 10, 2009

After years of development to meet what was once considered an impossible safety standard, Lion Apparel has created the first firefighting ensemble — turnout gear with hood, gloves, boots and self-contained breathing apparatus — to be certified under the National Fire Protection Association’s standard for chemicals, biological agents and radiological particulates.

The accomplishment is seen as a game-changing achievement as much as it underlines the heightened preparedness for a chemical or biological attack and the difficulty in protecting first-responders against such attacks.

Last month, Nick Curtis and his Lion Apparel colleagues waited as a test subject wearing the potentially groundbreaking firefighting gear jumped, crawled, reached and dragged for 30 minutes.

Dangerous particles (simulated) were blown into the test chamber at the firefighter. When he emerged, his ensemble was tested to see how many of the particles had penetrated the suit.

“We were on pins and needles,” said Curtis, Lion’s vice president for global product development. “In the beginning we didn’t think it would be possible to do it.”

Lion, a Dayton-based company that provides protective equipment to first-responding agencies worldwide, began working on the ensemble nearly three years ago, when the NFPA modified its 1971 standard to include an optional provision against chemical, biological and radiological threats.

Once met, the standard alerts agencies that the protective ensembles are legitimate.

“They want to know they’re not getting a pig in a poke,” said Bruce Teele, senior emergency services safety specialist for the NFPA.

Keep reading: Gear meets mark once thought beyond reachable

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or  knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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