firefighter air?

[Aquanautchuck]

I would also wonder if the air is as dry as you get from a scuba shop. I hate cleaning rust out of tanks. The SCBA's that I have seen are not steel but fiberglass, though I could be wrong.

 

[jumbo]

Ive used air from a fire station cascade system

JUMBO

 

[Fireman Ken]

I agree with you as long as you are referencing Grade E air.

It's a conditional agreement however as some of the contaminants that could find their way into an SCBA tank may be non problematic at 1 ATM inside a burning building, but are potentially fatal in a scuba tank when the contaminants may be breathed at the 2 to 5 ATM ambient pressures encountered in even recreational diving. So the existance and consistent application of safety procedures to ensure the air is frequently tested, properly filtered and maintained at or above grade E standards is vital.

DA,

I agree 100% that Grade E Air or better is key in an underwater scuba environment and that contaminants & cylinder air issues that don't affect you at 1 ATM may very well be fatal in the 2-5 ATM range.

I am now putting on my firefighter helmut. I know that when the filters on the cascade system at the station are close to needing to be changed, I feel far more fatigued after "Scotting up" and breathing SCBA air for 20 - 30 minutes than when the filters are newer. I do keep an eye on our Cascade System's service log and maybe this fatigue is psychological on my part. Our air at the station is Grade E rated and what intrigued me, many years ago, during Station orientation, was being told that the air quality from our cascade system was good enough to use in scuba tanks.

If I came off as being too cavalier about fire cascade system air vs. scuba air, I apologize.

Note that for my Scuba tanks, I only use O2 filtered air when I don't put Nitrox mixtures into them. When it comes to any breathing air cylinder, you can't be too careful. This is one area you should not cut corners. I learned a long time ago to get your scuba tank air from a reliable source. And that source is generally my dive shop.

Ken

 

[Ron Brandt]

The firefighters I know do theor own fills with either the scba addaptor or,if the station has a dive team or lots of dive heads a second whip with a yoke for scuba is added.

There are also industerial suppliers that do scba fills and if you have a scba to scuba addaptor they will fill for you as well,hence not needing to visit the lds and putting up with the....????

Ron