NFPA 1851 Turnout Gear Care: Cleaning, Inspection, and Retirement Guidelines

Your turnout gear is the single most important piece of equipment standing between you and a hostile fire environment. It shields you from radiant heat, direct flame contact, steam burns, and chemical exposure. And yet in station after station across this country, I see gear that is filthy, gear that has never been properly inspected, gear that should have been retired years ago, and gear that is hung up on hooks to dry without ever being cleaned after a working fire. We have to do better. Our lives literally depend on it.

NFPA 1851, the Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, lays out everything you need to know about how to take care of your gear. This is not optional reading for company officers. This is the standard that defines how your department should be handling PPE from the day it arrives to the day it gets pulled from service. If your department does not have a written gear care program based on NFPA 1851, you have a serious gap that needs to be fixed.

Let me walk through the key components of this standard and what they mean for you on the floor.

Understanding Contamination Levels

The standard breaks contamination into three categories. Routine contamination is the everyday grime that accumulates from normal wear. This includes dust, sweat, and light soiling. Advanced contamination covers exposure to products of combustion, body fluids, hazardous materials, or any situation where your gear is visibly soiled from a fire or hazmat incident. Special contamination is reserved for situations involving known chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agents that require specialized decontamination procedures beyond what a station gear washer can handle.

Most firefighters treat all of these the same way, which is to say they do nothing. After a working fire, they pull their gear off, maybe wipe it down with a wet rag, and hang it up. That is not cleaning. That is spreading carcinogens around the inside of your locker room. Every time you put that gear back on without properly cleaning it, you are reexposing yourself to all the toxins it absorbed on the last fire.

Routine Cleaning After Every Exposure

After any fire or hazmat exposure, your gear needs to be cleaned. Period. This does not mean tossing it in a regular household washing machine. NFPA 1851 specifies that routine cleaning should be done using a front-loading commercial washer or a gear-specific extractor designed for structural PPE. Top-loading agitator machines can damage the moisture barrier and tear the stitching that holds the thermal liner in place.

Use only cleaning agents that are listed and verified for use with your specific gear. Standard laundry detergent can degrade the DWR (durable water repellent) finish on the outer shell and compromise the moisture barrier. Your gear manufacturer will have a list of approved cleaning products. Stick to that list. The water temperature should not exceed 105 degrees Fahrenheit for routine cleaning. Higher temperatures can shrink the thermal liner and compromise the integrity of the entire ensemble.

After cleaning, gear should be dried in a well-ventilated area away from direct sunlight and UV exposure. Do not use a commercial dryer unless it is specifically designed for gear drying and operates at temperatures below 105 degrees. Hanging gear in direct sunlight might seem harmless, but UV radiation degrades the outer shell fabric over time, weakening its tear strength and flame resistance.

Advanced Inspection Requirements

NFPA 1851 requires two levels of inspection: routine and advanced. Routine inspection should happen every time you put your gear on and every time you take it off. You are looking for rips, tears, burns, missing hardware, compromised seams, discoloration from chemical exposure, and any damage to the reflective trim. If you find damage, pull that piece out of service until it can be evaluated by someone qualified to assess the damage.

Advanced inspection is a more thorough process that should happen at least once a year, or any time gear has been subjected to significant contamination or damage. During an advanced inspection, you separate all three layers of the coat and pants (outer shell, moisture barrier, and thermal liner) and examine each one individually. You check every seam, every piece of hook-and-loop closure, every snap, zipper, and piece of reflective trim. You perform a light test on the moisture barrier to check for pinholes and degradation. You verify that the thermal liner is intact and not compressed or thinned from repeated washings and wear.

The standard also requires that advanced inspections be conducted by someone who has been trained in the process. This is not a job for a probie on a slow Sunday. Your department should have designated personnel, whether it is a quartermaster, a safety officer, or a trained company officer, who understand the inspection criteria and can make informed decisions about whether a piece of gear should be repaired, returned to service, or retired.

When to Retire Gear

Here is where a lot of departments get into trouble. NFPA 1851 establishes a maximum service life of 10 years from the date of manufacture for structural firefighting ensembles. Not 10 years from when you started wearing it. Not 10 years from when the department bought it from the vendor. Ten years from the date the manufacturer made it. That date is on the label inside your gear. If you cannot read the label or the label is missing, the gear should be retired immediately.

There is an important caveat here. The 10-year service life is a maximum, not a guarantee. Gear can and should be retired earlier if it fails an advanced inspection, if the moisture barrier is compromised, if the outer shell has lost its protective properties, or if repairs would compromise the overall integrity of the ensemble. Wearing gear past its useful life is not frugal. It is reckless.

I have seen departments running gear that is 15 or 20 years old because the budget does not allow for replacement. I understand the budget pressure, but no budget shortfall justifies sending a firefighter into a structure fire with gear that no longer meets the standard. If your department is in that situation, document it, bring it to the chief, and push for a replacement plan. The liability alone should be enough to move the needle.

The Cancer Connection

This is the part that should keep every fire officer up at night. We now have overwhelming evidence that occupational cancer is the leading cause of line-of-duty deaths in the American fire service. The products of combustion that settle on your gear after a working fire include known carcinogens: benzene, formaldehyde, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, hydrogen cyanide, and dozens of other compounds. Every time you wear contaminated gear, those chemicals absorb through your skin, particularly in high-heat areas like your neck, wrists, and groin.

Proper gear cleaning is not just about extending the life of your equipment. It is about reducing your lifetime cancer risk. The fireground decon process should start on scene. Brush off loose debris. Use water or a gentle soap and water solution to wipe down the exterior of your gear before you get back on the rig. Then get it into a proper cleaning cycle as soon as you return to the station. Do not sit around in contaminated gear for hours doing overhaul or writing the report.

The National Fire Protection Association at nfpa.org maintains the full text of NFPA 1851 along with companion guides and technical resources for implementing a gear care program. If you are a company officer or safety officer, this should be on your reading list. The standard is updated on a regular cycle, and staying current with the latest edition ensures your program reflects the best available science.

Building a Department Gear Care Program

If your department does not have a formal gear care program, here is a starting framework. First, assign responsibility. Someone in the organization needs to own the gear program. Whether it is the safety officer, a dedicated quartermaster, or a battalion chief, there has to be one person who is accountable for making sure the program runs.

Second, track everything. Every piece of gear should have a record that includes the date of manufacture, date of purchase, date placed in service, every cleaning cycle, every inspection, every repair, and the eventual retirement date. This documentation is not busywork. It is your proof of compliance if something goes wrong and the lawyers come asking questions.

Third, establish cleaning protocols that match NFPA 1851 requirements. Post the procedures in the station. Train every member on how to properly clean, dry, and store their gear. Make second sets available so members can rotate gear after a fire without being out of service.

Fourth, schedule advanced inspections annually and track them. Use the inspection checklist from the standard or develop your own based on your gear manufacturer's guidelines. Document every finding and every action taken.

Fifth, establish clear retirement criteria and stick to them. When gear reaches the end of its service life, pull it. Do not let it linger in a locker because someone likes the way it fits or because the replacement set has not arrived yet.

Your gear is not a trophy. It is not a badge of honor to have the dirtiest, most beat-up set of turnouts in the station. That attitude is from a different era, and it is literally killing firefighters. Take care of your gear. Clean it. Inspect it. Replace it when the time comes. Your family needs you to come home healthy after every shift, not just today, but 30 years from now.

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