An Allen County police officer trying to serve court papers had gone to the house on Sand Point Road twice.Both times, James E.It’s a nightmare scenario for firefighters everywhere.
A ceiling collapses, bringing with it a bird’s nest of telephone wires, fiber optic cables and power cords. A firefighter tries to escape, but the round fiberglass air tank that sits 8 inches off his back – the only thing allowing him to breathe in a burning building filled with noxious smoke and gases – becomes tangled, trapping him inside.
Or a rescuer tries to crawl through a window or a hole in a wall, only to be hung up and hampered by the same heavy, unwieldy round fiberglass cylinder that carries the life-sustaining supply of breathable air.
Stan Sanders thinks he’s got a solution. The Southern California engineer and entrepreneur, lured to Fort Wayne by the promise of support from local officials and a skilled and willing workforce, has developed a flat, flexible air tank that weighs half of what a standard cylinder air tank with a third the profile.
The “FlatPack” was designed in Fort Wayne, tested by Fort Wayne firefighters and, if all goes well, will be manufactured in Fort Wayne. And Sanders believes it will change the way firefighters – not to mention scuba divers and ambulatory patients – carry compressed air.
Firefighters across the country could begin wearing the new tanks as they storm burning buildings as early as 2011, Sanders said. “This will be one of the biggest game-changers you’ll see in the fire industry in quite some time,” said Greg Price, a program director at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is funding the project and helping with development.
Current air tank technology hasn’t changed much since the 1970s. Firefighters carry bulky, round carbon-fiber air tanks on metal frames strapped to their backs.
Getting hung up, tangled or stuck with the tanks on is such a big concern that firefighters train to take the tank off, slide through a hole, gap or window, and then put the tank back on without removing their breathing masks, said Capt. Travis Hostler, Fort Wayne Fire Department instructor.
Hostler was one of several Fort Wayne firefighters who helped test and trouble-shoot FlatPack prototypes.
Sanders’ new design strings five long, thin tubes together into an array of air tanks. Each tube has a braided connector in the middle that allows it to flex as a firefighter’s back bends. The tubes are made of heavy-duty strands of woven synthetic material that are much less likely to fragment and explode than traditional tanks, Sanders said.
A traditional cylinder air tank and pack weighs about 26 pounds and sits 8 inches off a firefighter’s back. Sanders’ FlatPack is about 14 pounds and hangs 2 1/2 inches off the wearer’s back. Both hold enough air for 45 minutes.
The weight difference is critical for firefighters. The heavier an air tank and breathing apparatus is, the more energy firefighters have to exert. Reducing the load reduces fatigue and improves mobility, Hostler said.
But the air pack’s greatest virtue, the veteran firefighter said, is its ability to let rescue crews fit more easily through tight spaces. Hostler has run through the Fort Wayne Fire Department’s confidence course – a maze meant to test firefighters’ response to stress and put them through a number of obstacles that they’re likely to encounter while battling house fires – several times with both Sanders’ air tanks and a traditional cylinder air pack.
He quickly learned that if he can fit his shoulders through an opening, he can likely crawl through it with his pack on. And the chance of it getting snagged, hung up or caught is much lower than with a traditional air tank, he said.
The upshot of all this is that he found himself spending less time worrying about his air tank and more time concentrating on his surroundings.
“It was just easier to remain much calmer,” Hostler said.
Picking Fort Wayne
Sanders began developing the concept for his FlatPack six years ago while he was working outside St. Louis. The design is based on an air pack developed for high-altitude U.S. Special Forces skydives.
The Defense Department stipulated that the air tanks had to be smaller and lighter than regular tanks. But most important, the new design had to minimize the chance that the tanks would catastrophically explode if hit by bullets or shrapnel, Sanders said.
Sanders’ background is in marine engineering – he developed diving apparatus for the U.S. Navy and scuba divers. Sanders said he started working on a new air tank for firefighters because he believes it can make firefighters safer. It doesn’t hurt that his son is a Los Angeles firefighter as well.
When he began shopping around for a place to develop and manufacture his design, a friend suggested Sanders check out Fort Wayne. And he liked it.
Manufacturing space was cheap and officials were eager to help. But most important, Fort Wayne – with its strong automotive manufacturing background – has a wealth of skilled workers and machine shops, he said.
Another key factor was the Public Safety Academy, which Sanders and his engineers have used extensively as a proving ground for the new invention.
With the help of the Fort Wayne Fire Department and the local firefighters union, Sanders and the International Association of Firefighters received a $2.7 million contract from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to fast-track the development of the pack. Homeland Security took up the invention as part of the agency’s efforts to quickly bring new technologies to first responders across the country.
The program has already gotten the attention of firefighters in New York, Chicago and San Diego, Sanders said.
Hostler said Sanders’ approach to finalizing the pack has been no-nonsense. He’d walk in, drop a prototype on the table and tell the firefighters to tear it apart.
The experts, all with several years of experience battling blazes in houses, would point out a snag here or a vulnerable point there. Sanders would thank the firefighters, take the pack and return later with a new prototype, having fixed the bugs.
And the process would start all over again.
Sanders is currently waiting for the Flat Pack to pass muster on certifications from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Fire Protection Association before he can begin production.
He’s also waiting for a traditional air tank company to develop a harness to hold the new air packs – something that doesn’t please Sanders.
Before he started serious development on his FlatPack, Sanders said he offered to sell the concept to traditional air tank manufacturers. They flatly rejected him, and he takes it as a point of personal pride that the design has flourished without their support. “It’s just a better product,” Sanders said.
