Aluminum Shelters Protect Against Wildfires – But Not Failsafe

July 12, 2013- The 19 firefighters who lost their lives in the Arizona wildfires last month had turned to their very last resort – emergency aluminum shelters – but those weren’t enough to save them in this case.

NBC News reports that the shelters can withstand temperatures of 500 degrees F, which provides good protection against radiant heat and intermittent flames, and the shelters, have saved firefighters’ lives in the past. But once flames come into direct contact with the aluminum covering, the shelter doesn’t last long.  

A spokesman for the Prescott Fire Department in Arizona told NBC's TODAY that the elite unit of Granite Mountain Hotshots must have fallen victim to a "perfect storm" of hazards, including a sudden shift in wind that may have caused the fires to turn against them.

Fire shelters have been standard issue since the 1960s, but the classic "pup tent" design was replaced by the current design 10 years ago. Studies show that the new two-ply, sleeping-bag model is much better at protecting firefighters from the superheated air and flames.

Since 2005, 116 of those new-style shelters have been used during wildfires and they are thought to have saved 21 lives and prevented 90 burn injuries.

It takes less than 20 seconds to unfold the shelter. Firefighters climb inside, strap themselves in and lay face-down on the ground, where air is coolest. At 500 degrees F, the aluminum-coated layers start to come apart. And when the temperature reaches 1,200 degrees F, the aluminum melts. A wildfire's flames average 1,600 degrees F. 

A design change being considered is an improvement to the glue that laminates the aluminum foil to the cloth that would enable that bond to withstand higher temperatures.

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