Humans have been wearing flame resistant clothing since the early Romans, if not longer.
We can assume that since the moment humans invented fire, it wasn’t long before another human suffered a burn. It would be impossible to know how much time passed before we set about finding a solution, but we do know that war can be a great motivator for invention.
Through innovation, we’ve come a long way since those early days. We’ve also cranked up the fire safety standards with workwear, especially in the last decade. This has been a good thing for everyone. We’ll come back to why in a second.
The key to appreciating fire resistant (FR) workwear is to understand how far we’ve come, but also to know about modern-day options so one can make the best choices for personal safety.
If you’re an employer, nobody needs to tell you that it’s your duty to know this stuff. The right workwear may be the last line of defense for your most valuable asset, your workforce.
Today the subject seems a little complicated, but it all started with a splash of water…
Early Innovations
Early Roman soldiers anticipated that their enemy’s arrows might be on fire. It’s one thing to take an arrow to the arm, but a whole different flaming ball of pain if that arrow was on fire.
Soldiers first used flaming arrows in the 7th century BCE, but it took a few hundred years before someone in the Roman legion figured out a defense. That was around 400 BCE.
To keep from burning to the ground, Roman soldiers threw water-soaked animal skin over their shoulders. This, as one can imagine, was laborious and not impenetrable.
Any protection is better than none, but a wet skin would score very low on today’s arc scale (Don’t worry if you don’t know what that is, we’ll come back to that too.)
Moving forward in time, knights (in some instances) wore heavy armor which could resist fire, but that was not the goal. Armor was fire resistant, but they designed it for defending crushing blows.
In an actual fire, one would probably toss off his armor, lest he should cook himself inside his workwear.
We’ll always have Paris…
Humans didn’t witness any real innovations in fire resistance until the 18th CE. It was in the theater, in a bit of a reversal.
Theaters are places where historically the technologies invented for war find a home. For example, lighting instruments developed for war found their way to theaters to lighting stages.
It is with some irony that the first standards for fire safety went the other way, from the theaters out into more utilitarian applications.
Theaters have always been famous for fires, dating back to when they used actual fire to light up playhouses. As it turned out, fire, wood, and alcohol were not a good combination.
It was the 1632 invention of plaster of Paris that set into motion the first true aspects of fire safety. Until that time, buildings were wood for the most part. Plaster offered some resistance to fire, so they started building theaters out of it.
The first flame resistant curtain went up in London, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1794. They manufactured that beast from iron, which worked well as a curtain, but not so good as clothing.
We still didn’t have a solution for the body better than wet animal skins until the 19th century. Again, in France, a chemist named Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac infused ammonium phosphate and borax into a fabric, creating the first FR fabric.
The only problem was the ammonium phosphate laundered out, rendering it useless after washing. We needed a more permanent solution.
Treated v. Inherent Fabrics
It was in 1912, William Henry Perkin, a British chemist used stannic oxide to make FR clothing which stood the test of washing. Finally, we had our first real treated FR fabric.
It would be another couple of decades before we developed what we call inherent FR fabric.
The difference between the two is that one starts as a normal fabric. After treatment, the fabric becomes flame resistant, as was Perkin’s fabric.
Inherent fabrics start their resistant journey from the creation of the fibers that make up the cloth. They will never lose their resistant qualities through washing or wear.
It was the 1960s when inherent FR fabrics came about created by the Dupont company. They invented a new textile called Nomex, which remains the modern benchmark for fire-resistant materials.
Companies like Bulwark still make their FR workwear from Nomex because it works.
What might make William Henry Perkins roll in his grave is how 100 years later anyone can make FR fabric. A quick online search turns up instructions on how to make any piece of regular clothing fire resistant.
There are some Roman soldiers who might have appreciated the internet for that detail alone. That said, treating a fabric with flame resistant materials is not permanent and shouldn’t be one’s plan if she needs long-lasting FR workwear.
Modern Regulations
In 1953, the Flammable Fabrics Act mandated that textile manufacturers could not produce FR clothing from flammable textiles.
Because of that act, everyday clothing had to pass the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s standards for flammability. The Act included provisions that children’s sleepwear had to be FR.
In 2000, the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) drafted a new standard for FR clothing, as requested and adopted by OSHA. In fact, the last decade has been witness to more than one increase in the safety requirements made by OSHA for wearing flame resistant clothing in a broader scope of environments.
We anticipate the future will only provide more regulation as new textiles become available. Again, these upgrades are all necessary and welcome.
In 2012 the NFPA developed the arc rating (AR) standard to apply to situations where electricity is a factor. In short, AR clothing is always flame resistant but FR clothing is not necessarily arc resistant.
We measure arc ratings as Arc Thermal Performance Value (ATPV). The arc rating of fabric indicates the value of the energy necessary to pass through any given fabric to cause with 50% probability a second or third-degree burn.
The fire standard is a Flash Fire Rating (FFR), expressed on garments as the NFPA® 2112 Standard. The key is knowing the risks of the work, then selecting the right workwear for the job.
(As always, if you have any questions about your specific situation, please contact us at All Seasons Uniforms and let us help you.)
Flame resistant clothing is good for everybody. In the long run, these standards better protect workers, better protect the business. When workers feel safe, they are more productive. There are less lost days or medical costs to the business.
Imagine how much better Roman soldiers would have fought donning Nomex or Kevlar uniforms. We might still be living in the Roman Empire had they invented this kind of technology.
Thankfully, flame resistant workwear has come a long way since the Romans, but it is still only resistant. There is no such workwear that is fireproof.
Humanity hasn’t yet created a textile someone can wear that won’t ever burn. You can be sure that when we do, All Seasons Uniforms will carry it.
Sources: ishn.com, ehow.com, ishn.com
About the Author
Nick Warrick
Nick Warrick is the Sales Manager at All Seasons Uniforms. With over 15 years of experience in the work uniform business, he has worked with hundreds of clients across 20 different industries. Holding bachelor’s degrees in both Business Administration and Information Technology, Nick revamped the company’s online presence, offering its customers a new uniform shopping experience.