FDNY Personal Safety System Used for First Time, Saves Firefighter's Life

In 2005, Exponent was retained by the Fire Department, City of New York (FDNY) to provide independent third party engineering consulting and technical review services related to the FDNY’s design and procurement of Personal Safety System’s (PSS’s) for use by its members. A PSS is a system of components intended to provide a firefighter with the means for self-rescue, and is carried by all members at all times when performing operations. Exponent analyzed and assessed the FDNY’s efforts to ensure the PSS met the FDNY’s requirements, and was a suitable and efficient means to egress from a structure if conditions become untenable.

On New Years Eve, an FDNY member used the PSS for the first time since it was issued. FDNY Firefighters responded to a fire in a wood-frame building on 540 Willoughby Avenue at 3:41 a.m. A firefighter working on the fourth floor of the building encountered fire blocking his means of egress. With no other means of escape, the firefighter hooked his PSS to the window frame and escaped outside, where he dangled below the ledge. Firefighters manning the aerial equipment immediately moved their apparatus to meet him and lower him to safety. Click here to read the full story.

Posted: January 14, 2008

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