Life Expectancy for Protective Clothing As the NFPA Technical
Committee on firefighters protective clothing worked through the
year 2008 revision of NFPA 1851, Standard on Selection, Care,
and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire
Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, one of the most debated
issues continued to be “What is the life expectancy of
protective clothing?” Although the committee was not able to
reach complete agreement on the answer to this question, there
was consensus that structural ensemble elements should be
retired ten years after the date of manufacture, and that
proximity outer shells must be retired five years after the date
of manufacture. However, the Annex does contain language
explaining that this does not mean all ensemble elements will
last or should remain in service for the full 5 or 10 years –
just that five year old proximity outer shells and ten year old
structural gear must be retired. The standard also provides
additional criteria for inspection and retiremen