Today, we want to talk about the proper ways to layer underneath your flame resistant uniforms. Often we hear people say, "I want to make sure that my outer most layer is flame resistant. Whether I am wearing a shirt, a pant, a coverall or maybe a bib or parka. That's all I need to consider. I'm taken care of." Well that's not necessarily true. We need to also consider all the accessories that we might have on, like headwear. For example, what we're wearing underneath our primary layer, like our base layer t-shirts, our layering sweatshirt pieces.

It's a really important issue here, because what we know about the NFPA 2112 standard is, yes; you need to make sure your outermost layer is flame resistant and complies to the proper standards, but also we have to make sure that what we also layer underneath those garments is of the proper make up, so we're not in event of a catastrophic event, that we're not going to worsen any injuries, by what we're wearing close to our body.

We want to make sure that when we're wearing t-shirts or layering pieces underneath of our garments, that they are of flame resistant materials and/or 100% cotton, natural fibers. So what are we trying to avoid here, which a lot of people will put on underneath of their flame resistant garments. For example a polyester t-shirts, polyester athletic wear and/or stretch fabrics. The kind of garments that you'll find in the athletic market, your your basic run of the mill tee shirt or sweatshirt. Often those types of garments are made with a high percentage of polyester and that's something we really need to avoid. Because once a flame source comes in contact with polyester, it's going to burn, it's going to melt and worsen any injury that you might experience.

So, consider everything against your skin to be of either 100% cotton or better yet, a fIre resistant rated fabrics. Certainly when we're thinking about layering with sweatshirts, we want to make sure that we're using FR flame resistant materials in our knit products and layering pieces and of course, don't forget your headwear. Whether we're using tossle caps, or face shields that we'll put under our hard hats or even our hard hat liners. We want to make sure that all of these gears are flame resistant rated.