A Better Fit For Female Firefighters

About 80 percent of female firefighters say that their personal protective clothing doesn't fit right, and studies show that ill-fitting gear puts women at greater risk of being injured on the job. Today on the podcast, we talk to two textile researchers who measured dozens of female firefighters as part of a multi-year project on turnout gear for women. They tell us why designing protective clothing for women has historically been such a challenge, and how we can fix this widespread problem (2:51). Then, on a new Code Corner, NFPA engineer Shawn Mahoney answers your questions about height requirements for wall-mounted manual pull-stations for fire alarm systems (32:31). LINKS: Watch a webinar with researchers Cassandra Kwon and Meredith McQuerry Read an new NFPA Journal feature story about the project to understand and solve the problem of ill-fitting PPE for female firefighters. If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hello, you can reach the NFPA Podcast at [email protected].