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janrinok writes:

A report found on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [nist.gov] website details some rather alarming results of test that they have recently conducted:

Firefighters rely on the radios to report their location and to communicate with other first responders as well as the incident command post or communications center. Performance problems with portable radios have been identified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as contributing factors in some firefighter fatalities.

All seven of the firefighter portable radios tested by NIST failed to perform properly within 15 minutes when exposed to temperature levels encountered in “fully involved” fires, as when all the contents in a room or structure are burning. Four of the hand-held radios stopped transmitting, and three experienced significant “signal drift,” rendering the radios unreliable for communication.

The failures occurred while the radios were subjected to a temperature of 160 degrees Celsius (320 degrees Fahrenheit), termed Thermal Class II conditions. The temperature is representative of a fully involved fire or conditions outside a room when its contents burst into flames simultaneously, a phenomenon known as flashover.

During the post-test cool-down period, three of the radios did not recover normal function.

However, as someone with no specialist knowledge of the fire-fighting profession, I do wonder howmany firefighters have to be able to withstand 160 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Does the rest of the fireman's equipment continue to work after such an extreme test? I know that firemen may have to cope with a lower temperature for a much longer period, or perhaps even higher temperatures for a brief period, but I am not certain if the test is a realistic one or a test until destruction/inoperability. The NIST report states that the tests should be 'realistic and reliable' - but doesn't actually state that these test meet that requirement.

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