Firefighting and Emergency Response Study of Advanced Composites Aircraft. Objective 4: Post Fire Decontamination of Personal Protection Equipment

摘要

Concerns existed regarding the decontamination of personal protective equipment (PPE) exposed to fires involving advanced composite materials (ACM). The concerns focused on soot particles and fugitive fiber emissions produced from burning ACM and expected to deposit on turnout suits and equipment. Contaminants to PPE were studied from live ACM fires and from contact with burned ACM. Photomicrography techniques were developed to provide quantitative measures of the contaminants. MATLAB and the Image Analysis Toolbox were used to quantify particulates photographed through microscopes on PPE material and test coupons. Coupons of material used in proximity bunker suit construction were exposed to burned ACM and were then cleaned, with quantitative measures of surface particle contaminants made prior to exposure, after exposure, and after cleaning, to test cleaning techniques of water washing, vacuum cleaning, simple brushing, decontamination with wipes, and cleaning with a sticky lint roller. Water washing and a sticky lint roller were the best of the techniques examined for removal of ACM-derived particulate contamination.