According to an MSNBC report, Personal Alert Safety System (PASS) motion sensors, which alert firefighters to fallen comrades at incidents, may fail to perform as intended if they get too hot or wet. Worn by a million U.S. firefighters, the motion sensors raise an alarm if a firefighter stops moving for 30 seconds, but federal and independent lab tests show that some PASS alarms don’t function under the aforementioned conditions.
The MSNBC report goes on to say that a review of federal investigative reports show that fifteen firefighters have died since 1998 in fires where a PASS system either didn’t sound or was too quiet for rescuers to detect.
The entire first part of this MSNBC investigation by reporter Bill Dedman can be read HERE.
