Methodological Approach for the Substantiation of Equipping Fire-Protection Units with Personal Protection Equipment for Vision and Respiratory Organs

In the course of reviewing the sources dedicated to the choice of technical equipment for firefighters and rescuers, it has been found that the issue of choosing a hydraulic emergency rescue tool is more methodologically elaborated than the selection of any other necessary equipment (for example, personal protection equipment for vision and respiratory organs) as no specific choice methodologies (from diverse analogs provided by manufacturers) in the contemporary market of fire-protection and rescue equipment has been provided. The existing methodologies are still applicable; each of them is objective, but they focus primarily on cost and weight or technical parameters specified by manufacturers, which cannot substantiate the choice of reliable and efficient equipment. Today, key decision-makers often opt for particular technical properties (basically on the data provided by manufacturers). The need to develop the methodology of equipping fire-protection units for emergency and rescue operations when eliminating technogenic emergencies is the most relevant problem in conditions of implementation of import-substitution programs and the military doctrine of the Russian Federation. The established practices of state procurement by the request of various ministries and institutions are based on the analysis of tender documentation where the main criterion of equipment selection is the cost and (or) sometimes the amount of maintenance costs. However, this practice cannot be fully applied when providing fire-protection units with rescue equipment as the machinery of lower procurement and maintenance costs will not necessarily ensure the most efficient implementation of emergency and rescue operations. This is why the development of the methodology based on scientifically and methodologically justified comprehensive criteria to substantiate the technical equipment of fire protection units is crucial for key decision-makers. An algorithm to rank types of firefighting equipment has been developed (based on the example of personal protection equipment for visual and respiratory organs) to upgrade the technical equipment of fire-protection units by detecting the most preferable product based on the comprehensive criterion of relative general usefulness relying on the deterministic and probabilistic approaches to the identification of its reliability index.