We know that your firefighter turnout gear serves a distinct purpose – it must provide protection from a variety of factors you face each and every time you go out on a call. In order to do that, by nature that gear must be heavy and insulated.

Winter is upon us, and for those of us who work in a cold-weather climate that means working in even tougher conditions than normal – snow piled to our knees, temperatures in the teens with wind chills in the single digits or below, icy roads and sidewalks. It also means different kinds of calls – falling through ice, space heater fires, frostbite, and hypothermia, just to name a few.

Take a moment and picture this. It’s 2:30 a.m. and you’re the first responders on site to an active, blazing fire at a multi-unit apartment complex. You have no idea how many people are inside and can only assume that since it’s the middle of the night, there are many lives at stake.

The call comes in that there’s a house on fire in a nearby neighborhood. Possible victims inside. You and your team throw on your turnout gear and head out, sirens blaring. Your heart’s pumping, adrenaline flowing, but you’re ready because you’ve trained for this.