I've been out of this business a little over 4 years now and I hadn't heard this before.

Very disturbing!

From MSNBC is is a long article so I'm just posting the link.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16890732/

 

"American Parachutists...devils in baggy pants...are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can't sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere..."
(An entry in a German officer's diary found after the Battle of Anzio)

"The degenerative and loony should never be denigrated but, rather, thanked. In their absence, the rest of you would be obliged to fill congressional seats... positions naturally unsavory to the sane and honorable."

Thorax

NIST Report: PASS Alarms Become Less Audible At High Temperatures

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Building & Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL) released a report earlier this year concerning the effects of a thermal environment on the electronic equipment used by fire fighters.  Research conducted so far has evaluated the performance of stand-alone PASS alarms, batteries, and hand-held oxygen sensors.  Initial results on the PASS alarms indicate that these devices fail or become barely audible at temperatures as low as 300^o F.  This research could have a profound effect on the manufacture and testing of PASS alarms as required by NFPA 1982 - Standard on Personal Alert Safety Systems. 

Currently the BFRL is conducting research on integrated PASS alarms to determine if they react in a similar fashion to the stand-alone models.  The IAFF Division of Occupational Health, Safety and Medicine will continue to monitor this research and work with the NFPA and equipment manufacturers to ensure that fire fighter equipment is manufactured and tested to withstand the demands placed upon it in the fire environment.

Click here to view the full context of the report or go to the NIST BFRL website at http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/ to view all of projects being undertaken by the BFRL.

"American Parachutists...devils in baggy pants...are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can't sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere..."
(An entry in a German officer's diary found after the Battle of Anzio)

"The degenerative and loony should never be denigrated but, rather, thanked. In their absence, the rest of you would be obliged to fill congressional seats... positions naturally unsavory to the sane and honorable."

Thorax

In this discussion we believed that in the future the Fire Commander would have this capability, even a tie-in to a central database with building plans, etc. The PASS or something similar to this device would act as transponder (if that is the correct term).

Unfortunately we are probably a few decades away from this technology at least across the board of the fire protection community.

The closest I have had experience with was in our two-way portable radios which had a "panic" button that could be activated which sent a signal to dispatch with a code that listed who was signed for that radio. However I don'tr recall that the protable emitted a local audio sound.

Firefighting is a dangerous job and the best firefighter safety is good training especially in fire dynamics and fire ground command.

I didn't post it but today on MSNBC there was a follow up article that Sen. Kerry is now looking into this report concerning the PASS. Not a real warm and fuzzy on this but for general interest at the bottom of this article was mentioned that he would seek the Democratic ticket.

"American Parachutists...devils in baggy pants...are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can't sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere..."
(An entry in a German officer's diary found after the Battle of Anzio)