Fire Captain Credits SCBA for Successful Escape

When the alarm sounds and the heat is on, firefighters need equipment that will hold up under fire and perform as designed. MSA Air Masks give firefighters the most technologically advanced respiratory protection available today. The story below is a testament to one firefighter’s courage and MSA’s product quality.

MSA cannot give firefighters the courage they need to do their job, but we can strive to provide the best possible equipment to support them. And we do strive to provide something new or improved every year, so that firefighters equipped with the best equipment available have the best possible chance to survive the hellish inferno that is their work site.

Robert Rabon, a fire captain in Columbia, S.C., was wearing his MSA Air Mask when he entered a two-story apartment at 6 a.m. on New Year’s Day 2000.

Captain Rabon and his Engine 14 firefighters quickly prepared to meet the unknown. After calling for a back-up hose line to reach the attic, he climbed the stairs for a closer look and found a raging inferno.

Suddenly, the roof collapsed and swallowed him. Rabon was knocked to the floor and exposed to dense smoke and heat estimated at 2,500o F. He struggled to free himself and exit the building.

Fortunately, his MSA Air Mask stayed in place, providing him with the fresh air needed to keep him alive. Rabon and his equipment were ablaze as he escaped the hellish inferno, but he would live to fight another fire.“Without my turnout gear and MSA Air Mask, I would not be alive to tell this story,” Rabon said. “In afire, a few seconds without fresh air can seem like a lifetime.”

Rabon’s SCBA allowed him to get to safety, and celebrate the rest of the first day of the new millennium with his family. To celebrate Rabon’s courage, MSA named him “FireSlayer of the Year” at the FDIC Show in March 2001.

Note to firefighters: MSA is looking for 2001 candidates for “FireSlayer of the Year.” Contact MSA at 1-877-MSA-FIRE for details.