SCBA Diving

[jumpinfarmer 0]

No thats not a mis spelling I meen SCBA not SCUBA. I've been a vounteer firefighter for almost 20 years now and have always wanted to try an SCBA in water and got the chance to tonight. For drill we went to the high school pool and found out how well we could manage with full turnout gear in water if someone ever fell in a pool or any other water situation. A firefighter in full turnout gear with or without an SCBA floats quite well, better with the SCBA. I couldn't stay down which I had figured since I wasn't wearing any lead but the SCBA functioned perfactly under water to about 7 feet which is as deep as I could get.

Not recomended but it was fun as Hell.

[bfilarsky 0]

You using O2 or air on those?

If O2, be careful going underwater with it. Go too deep (around 20 ft is enough) and you can encounter Oxygen Toxicity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity

[LaRusic 0]

would have been air....firefighters with oxygen on their backs is not such a good idea. oxygen may not be flamable itself but it causes fire to burn a lot more.

also just as a point of interest, yes 100% pure oxygen is toxic past 20ft of water. This is why divers using nitrox (different mixtures of oxygen and nitrogen) will have to change their max depths according to their percentage of oxygen in the tank

The Altitude above you, the runway behind you, and the fuel not in the plane are totally worthless
Dudeist Skydiver # 10

[DiverMike 5]

Like most Scuba Diving Maladies, Oxygen Toxicity is based on depth and time. Normal air can cause oxygen toxicity if used at 180 feet for 20 minutes. 100% O2 can cause oxygen toxicity above the surface if you breathe it for two days. This is some of the useless trivia I learned becoming a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor and Master Scuba Diver Trainer.

For the same reason I jump off a perfectly good diving board.

[LaRusic 0]

i wouldnt call it useless.....actually its pretty damn important for us divers to know.

The Altitude above you, the runway behind you, and the fuel not in the plane are totally worthless
Dudeist Skydiver # 10

[Tuna-Salad 0]

Quote

No thats not a mis spelling I meen SCBA not SCUBA. I've been a vounteer firefighter for almost 20 years now and have always wanted to try an SCBA in water and got the chance to tonight. For drill we went to the high school pool and found out how well we could manage with full turnout gear in water if someone ever fell in a pool or any other water situation. A firefighter in full turnout gear with or without an SCBA floats quite well, better with the SCBA. I couldn't stay down which I had figured since I wasn't wearing any lead but the SCBA functioned perfactly under water to about 7 feet which is as deep as I could get.

Not recomended but it was fun as Hell.

What brand of scba? Seeing that they are designed to get wet I wouldn't see a reason for them to not function, but not prolonged. Same for turnout gear... how long did you float? Hope u got extra gear while ur stuff drys out.. cold wet gear + structure fire = sucks.

Millions of my potential children died on your daughters' face last night.

[Tuna-Salad 0]

The question about o2 or air, it is air, but there are different stages of air cleanliness. The stuff in SCBA is not filtered to be as clean as the air in SCUBA tanks. I think the stuff in SCUBA tanks are 5 stage, and the stuff in scba is 4 stage or maybe even 3. My numbers might be off, but there is a scale of such.

Millions of my potential children died on your daughters' face last night.

[bfilarsky 0]

Quote

would have been air....firefighters with oxygen on their backs is not such a good idea. oxygen may not be flamable itself but it causes fire to burn a lot more.

Breathing pure O2 while fighting a fire? What the hell could go wrong?

Good point. Guess I had a disconnect between a couple neurons.

[MrFreefall383 0]

I first saw the thread and thought, "Oh yeah, definitely a typo, I know what SCBA means, and that can't be right." Glad I was wrong, because I've always wanted to know how an SCBA unit would function submerged. Being in the Coast Guard, that's the only way to fight fires at sea onboard our vessels, and what happens if someone falls overboard in SCBA gear? I bet very few people have ever thought about that, but it can certainly happen. Good to know it'll still function and won't kill you right away.

"If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

[jumpinfarmer 0]

MSA packs I can't remember the model but they are about 10 years old. I had always been told they would work under water but no one realy knew for sure. We were told by the MSA rep that they would go into free flow when submerged but that wasn't the case. I just wish I had brought my weight belt so I could get down to the bottom and see how well it worked at depth. The mask had great visibilty better than my SCUBA mask and it was easy to breath.

Oh and yes we wore spare turnout gear so our own didn't get soaked. The coats floted even after they were totaly soaked. The only time I had any trouble staying afloat was if I thrashed around but even then if I stayed still again there was no trouble keeping my head above water.

Certianly not recomended for diving but it was fun to find out how well it worked.