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Dräger has renewed its sponsorship of the National Breathing Apparatus Challenge (NBAC), as part of its commitment to supporting the firefighting community and promoting industry best practice.
Now in its 16th year, The Challenge sees teams of five firefighters from across the UK competing where success depends on the expert use of breathing apparatus to manage an incident and the deployment of intelligent strategies such as tactical ventilation.
The competition, judged by over 30 highly-experienced national assessors, is split into four areas designed to cover the full spectrum of how breathing apparatus is used across all firefighting roles: command and control; breathing apparatus procedures; fire ground procedures; and entry control.
The event is held at the Fire Service College each year using three of their carbonaceous training venues where challenges replicate a wide range of real-life fire incident scenarios, including domestic, high-rise, and industrial. The competition takes place over a weekend and concludes with a Silver Service awards dinner.
Dräger’s sponsorship helps to cover the costs of venue hire, accommodation, materials and the awards dinner, so as to keep competition entry costs as low as possible.
“The competition takes a firefighter from site investigation, entry control board use and communication through to quickly and efficiently accessing water supply and unloading ladders and PPE equipment. It showcases how breathing apparatus is not just used to provide respiratory protection to wearers, but also to inform strategies, monitor firefighters’ health and connect the whole team,” she says.
“We have been a sponsor from the start of NBAC and are delighted to continue our sponsorship in support of the firefighting community.”
Liz Millward, Marketing Manager for Emergency and rescue Services, Dräger.
The 2024 NBAC event took place on 12 October.
At The Emergency Services Show in September, Brian Hesler and Kevin Barton spoke about how Dräger UK is helping fire and rescue services keep firefighters safe. Check out the full video interview here.