FIRE HELMETS
In January 1976 the Central Fire Brigades Advisory Committee (CFBAC) ruled black fire helmets would give way to canary yellow while officers helmets would remain white. Rank markings for all would all be in black and they also stated that leather chin straps should replace any plastic ones still in use.
A leather helmet?? 100_9917
An original Brass helmet. 100_9914
NFS Steel helmet, Dunbar Station C319/22 13/4/2003
An AFS Battle Bowler of the WAFB. These replaced the Steel Helmets that were used during the war. 100_9898
Glasgow Fire Service "METRO" helmet by Hendrys 100_9916
Helmet belonging to the Chief Salvage Officer Glasgow Salvage Corps. 100_9915
Gallet helmet as issued to Strathclyde Fire Brigade. 100_9912
Tayside use red stripes in place of black as it is reflective. They changed from Black to Red in ? Tayside issued new Rosenbauer helmets in July 2008. The helemets have goggles and a full face visor, both pulled down from the front.
A Rosenbauer Helmet of Tayside with Watch Manager rank stripes. No torch blank fitted. Issued July 2008.
A Rosenbauer Helmet of Tayside with Crew Manager rank stripes. Torch fitted.
A Rosenbauer Helmet of Tayside Fire and Rescue. Torch fitted.
Angloco wins its largest fire helmet tender
Angloco has recently been awarded
its largest contract to date for fire fighting helmets with a five year deal
with Scottish brigades to supply the new Rosenbauer HEROS-xtreme. The contract,
with seven of the eight fire and rescue services in Scotland, will run until at
least December 2012 with the option to extend and has an expected value of
approximately £550,000. The participating fire and rescue services are Lothian
and Borders, Central Scotland, Grampian, Tayside, Fife,
Dumfries and
Galloway and Highlands and Islands.
Although the contract only commenced in March 2008 orders have already been
called off by Lothian and Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Tayside and Grampian.
So far this year over 2000helmets have been delivered but over the next five
years at least 4000 helmets are expected to be supplied though the contract.
Graham Stevenson, Group Manager, commented, “The award came about for this joint
venture following collaboration between all seven services utilising all the
expertise available. This included the production of a joint technical
specification to go forward with the tender. Lothian and Borden Fire and Rescue
Service were the lead body for this tender so the procurement process was
handled by them for the other FRSs who signed up.
“Once the tenders were received, the quality and technical evaluations were
carried out utilising the Scottish Evaluation Tool, which involves results from
the joint technical group, a ‘user’ evaluation and procurement being combined to
produce the ‘best value’ purchase for the collaboration. Following this tender
process for structural fire helmets the Rosenbauer HEROS-xtreme was chosen as
the ‘best value’ option for the FRSs involved.”
Best value option
The Rosenbauer
HEROS-xtreme fire fighting helmet, used widely on the continent, is one of the
few helmets which conforms to the tough new prEN443:2008 standard. Rosenbauer,
headquartered in Austria, has been represented in the UK and Ireland by Angloco
for over 18 years. Angloeo, one of the largest suppliers of fire and rescue
equipment to the UK and Ireland is also the longest established fire appliance
manufacturer in the UK
The Scottish tender follows on the recent successful introduction of the
HEROS-xtreme to the UK municipal market with Hertfordshire FRS. Newcastle
International Airport was the first UK user and now several other UK and Ireland
airport FRSs have followed suit Officially launched at the Hannover Interschutz
show in 2005 the HEROS-xtreme began to find favour in the UK in 2006 with the
independent trials for the Integrated Clothing Project where it performed
particularly well.
(Fire Times, Vol. 10 No. 3, April/May 2008. Page 36.)