"There are no old smoke eaters. Wear your mask."
This is the advice Bill Sullivan, acting division chief for professional development and training for Toronto Fire Services, bestows on new recruits. It's meant to be interpreted as an order.
Air masks, or self-contained breathing apparatuses (called SCBAs in fire hall lingo), have come a long way since the days firemen were known as "smoke eaters" and grew long beards they could wet and stuff into their mouths to use as filters during fires. The only alternative was to stay low to the ground, where gravity was feeding cleaner air into the fire.
To help ease that approach, a special smoke hood was patented in the 1800s. It featured air tubes that fit into the firefighter's mouth and ran down his back to the ground.
"The idea was you could stand up in smoke and breathe air that was down low," said Peter McBride, a health and safety specialist with the International Association of Firefighters. "These were hard men."
By the time Mr. Sullivan joined the fire service 30 years ago, fire halls had been stocking modern air packs — steel compressed air canisters firefighters harnessed to their backs — for more than two decades. However, they were used grudgingly.
"There was a real smoke-eater mentality in the fire service, meaning tough guys don't wear masks," he said.
That mentality led the tough guys to some hard lessons, and many to early deaths. Now, Mr. Sullivan tells his recruits there's no excuse not to wear a mask.
The steel canisters have been replaced with lighter carbon fibre models, and many fire halls have had the packs built right into the seats of their trucks so firefighters can easily strap them on en route to a blaze.
"We all know the dangers associated with firefighting. There are diseases attributed to our job," Mr. Sullivan said. "There is no rational reason not to wear a mask. The machismo that goes with the job should not go in that direction."
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