Dräger renews sponsorship for National Breathing Apparatus Challenge

November 18, 2024

Dräger, an international leader in medical and safety technology, 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.

Mark Andrews from NBAC says there has been an increased need for realistic training over recent years: “We now have fewer fire emergency callouts, which is undoubtedly a success story for the industry. But it means realistic training is more important than ever to ensure fire crews can respond quickly, dynamically and instinctively when emergencies happen,” he says.

“The national challenge provides an excellent opportunity to provide firefighters with realistic training in breathing apparatus use to further that goal, while also being an event to bring the industry together and celebrate achievements. We are thrilled Dräger continues to sponsor such an important event.”

Liz Millward, Marketing Manager for Emergency and rescue Services, Dräger, says the NBAC demonstrates what physically demanding and complex roles our firefighters undertake: “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.”

The 2024 NBAC event took place on October 12th.

To read the full article, see our last issue here.