Mike S
Senior Curmudgeon
Hi there, with the current fire storm of discussion concerning safety issues, one of the things that is getting mentioned a lot is Nomex.
As a career fireman, with 37 years of experience, I have a bit of knowledge about this stuff, and would like to share.
Please understand that everything I am saying is related to fire service Nomex----Race car stuff could have different specifics. Ditto flightsuits. I just simply have no knowledge about them.
First off, Nomex is designed to be a protective outer layer, that will not support combustion. It is self extinguishing. It does provide a bit of insulation from the heat of a fire, but unless it is layered with something designed to insulate, the effect is minimal.
In the fire service, we had a light weight single layer nomex setup for wildland firefighting, and the heavy multi layer turnouts (sometimes called bunker gear) with a nomex shell, for structural, automotive, and other fires requiring more protection.
Nomex is a synthetic material, it will burn but only if heat is continuously applied to it. Remove the heat, and the fire goes out.
Single layered nomex should always be worn over a layer of something to insulate the skin. Many $$$ and much time has been put into testing this, and plane old cotton is the choice of material for the layer next to your skin. At work we were mandated to have long sleeve cotton T shirts, and then later someone figured out that the cotton sleeve itself could be installed in the nomex jacket. The lined sleeve jacket is now the only one allowed where I worked.
There were a lot of burn injuries to body parts only protected by nomex, before we went to the inner linings.
The other thing that is important is that there be air between the nomex, and the cotton layer------they should not be bonded together. The cotton acts like a wick, and picks up perspiration, and the evaporation helps in cooling.
Nomes long underwear has been mentioned here, as have nomex gloves. I have never seen nomex long johns in the fire service, and as to gloves----some nomex is used on the back of our turnout gloves, but the palms are all leather. Wildland fire gloves were all leather.
Anyway, to put all this into something that folks might benefit from, for the use we are concerned with, I think the best outfit would be cotton jeans, long sleeve cotton shirt, and a nomex outer layer like a jumpsuit. If the jumpsuit is already lined with a cotton layer, then just the jumpsuit.
Nomex can help prevent injury is used correctly, but it is not magic.
Hope this was informative, and helps folks to understand this stuff a bit.
As a career fireman, with 37 years of experience, I have a bit of knowledge about this stuff, and would like to share.
Please understand that everything I am saying is related to fire service Nomex----Race car stuff could have different specifics. Ditto flightsuits. I just simply have no knowledge about them.
First off, Nomex is designed to be a protective outer layer, that will not support combustion. It is self extinguishing. It does provide a bit of insulation from the heat of a fire, but unless it is layered with something designed to insulate, the effect is minimal.
In the fire service, we had a light weight single layer nomex setup for wildland firefighting, and the heavy multi layer turnouts (sometimes called bunker gear) with a nomex shell, for structural, automotive, and other fires requiring more protection.
Nomex is a synthetic material, it will burn but only if heat is continuously applied to it. Remove the heat, and the fire goes out.
Single layered nomex should always be worn over a layer of something to insulate the skin. Many $$$ and much time has been put into testing this, and plane old cotton is the choice of material for the layer next to your skin. At work we were mandated to have long sleeve cotton T shirts, and then later someone figured out that the cotton sleeve itself could be installed in the nomex jacket. The lined sleeve jacket is now the only one allowed where I worked.
There were a lot of burn injuries to body parts only protected by nomex, before we went to the inner linings.
The other thing that is important is that there be air between the nomex, and the cotton layer------they should not be bonded together. The cotton acts like a wick, and picks up perspiration, and the evaporation helps in cooling.
Nomes long underwear has been mentioned here, as have nomex gloves. I have never seen nomex long johns in the fire service, and as to gloves----some nomex is used on the back of our turnout gloves, but the palms are all leather. Wildland fire gloves were all leather.
Anyway, to put all this into something that folks might benefit from, for the use we are concerned with, I think the best outfit would be cotton jeans, long sleeve cotton shirt, and a nomex outer layer like a jumpsuit. If the jumpsuit is already lined with a cotton layer, then just the jumpsuit.
Nomex can help prevent injury is used correctly, but it is not magic.
Hope this was informative, and helps folks to understand this stuff a bit.
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