In the ever-evolving world of firefighting, it can feel like changes in procedure and protocol are constant. The NFPA has a variety of standards for each component of gear and their use, including the new NFPA 1970 standard that sets out PPE guidelines.
The NFPA 1970 update is a combination of multiple NFPA standards that all deal with some aspect of structural firefighting gear. The new standard is a combination of:
The goal of consolidating four standards into one was to ensure consistency across standards and to hopefully make it easier for departments to gain a clearer understanding of the gear that keeps firefighters safe day in and day out.
While the standard was first issued in 2024, it required a large amount of testing for certification. To comply with the new standard, manufacturers were required to complete all testing and recertification of materials by March 18, 2026.
NFPA 1970 has major changes that could affect gear performance numbers, the availability of turnout composites, and the overall landscape of firefighter PPE.
While breathability, as measured by Thermal Heat Loss (THL), has long been a part of the NFPA standard, a new required measurement called Ret helps firefighters gain a better understanding of the gear’s impact on their physical performance.
Ret is a measurement of how well clothing allows the body to cool through evaporation.
Sweat evaporation off the skin is one of the most important ways that the human body can adjust its internal temperature, without it, heat stroke and exhaustion are more likely. When clothing traps sweat vapor, sweat can’t evaporate and therefore can’t cool off the body. Ret measures how much resistance fabric has to sweat vapor. The lower the number, the better the breathability.
New conditioning methods have been designed to better stimulate real-world exposures. Heat, UV exposure, laundering, abrasion, and others are now included in the testing procedures for your gear.
Compared to non-particulate blocking hoods, particulate-blocking hoods are much more effective at keeping fireground substances away from your skin. All hoods being produced are now required to meet particulate blocking standards.
The goal of your gear is to protect you. However, the NFPA is going further to ensure that health and safety are of equal priority when it comes to the materials used to make your gear. Materials used in PPE are now required to be tested for banned and restricted substances. This will help ensure that turnouts and other gear are free from harmful, or potentially harmful, chemicals.
From now on, new gear marketed without “intentionally added PFAS” must go through a new verification process. Because PFAS may be present on gear as a result of unintentional exposure (e.g., during shipping, cross contamination with other materials, etc.), the new standard sets a defined limit for something to be considered free from intentionally added PFAS. This will help ensure that gear is never labeled as free from intentionally added PFAS without actually meeting the required criteria.
A new test will be able to measure flame resistance in turnout gear after fuel exposure. To perform the test, materials will be soaked in diesel, washed, then exposed to flames. This test will help determine the impact on the flammability of outer shells after significant exposure to combustible materials, and how it affects their performance.
The NFPA updates now require specific testing practices to help determine the safety of DRDs. In a real-world application, a tester now must be able to rescue a test dummy using the DRD while wearing firefighting gloves and an obscured SCBA mask.
Now, all outer shells are required to undergo testing to determine the effectiveness of cleaning at removing different types of fireground contaminants. This will help establish the relationship between fabric and cleaning removal rate, so you know exactly how your gear is going to respond to cleaning treatments.
The changes of the NFPA 1970 update go further in ensuring safety for firefighters. Here at Fire-Dex, our goal is to provide safe, effective, cutting-edge gear that complies to the rigorous standards of third-party testing. All of our products are NFPA certified, allowing you peace of mind each time you don your gear.
Let us protect you, so you can protect them.