Boots
Firefighter turnout boots are usually sized as a regular shoe, but are made of rubber or leather with a Boron Steel toe insert. The boots are slipped inside the legs of the trousers to maintain a barrier from the heat given off by the fire. When the trousers and boots are not being actively used, the trousers will fold down and out around the shins of the boots, ready for quick access for the firefighter. Due to the enormous amounts of potential hazards at a fire scene to the feet, turnout boots are required to be able to handle a variety of different burns and blows. All boots are required to be outfitted with safety toes and a puncture resistant midsole plate to prevent puncture from sharp objects that may be stepped on. Such emphasis on the midsole plate is made that IFSTA has deemed that “if there is doubt about midsole protection, x-ray the boot.”
Read more about this topic: Bunker Gear
Famous quotes containing the word boots:
“Women think that an engineer is a man in hip boots building a dam. They don’t realize that 95 percent of engineering is done in a nice air-conditioned office.”
—Beatrice Alice Hicks (1919–1979)
“I heard of one man who complained that somebody had stolen his boots in the night; and when he found them, he wanted to know what they had done to them,—they had spoiled them,—he never put that stuff on them; and the bootblack narrowly escaped paying damages.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)