FAQ'S (Frequently Asked Questions)

1. What makes this t-shirt different from what I am currently wearing?

There are several things that make this shirt superior to the one your are wearing. First and foremost this shirt is Fire Resistant, so it will provide you with an additional layer of protection. This is referred to as a secondary protective garment. Obviously, firefighters have available to them primary protective clothing, usually made from Nomex, which provides excellent protection. Since you currently wear a t-shirt under this gear our shirt gives you the added confidence that should you need it, there is another layer of protective clothing, protecting your critical torso area. Also, should you for any reason be in a fire event without your turnout coat, you will have protection that you do not currently have with a regular cotton t-shirt.

Second, the standard navy t-shirt that most departments wear is made from 100% cotton or sometimes a blended fabric made from polyester and cotton. These shirts will burn rapidly if exposed to fire as evidenced by the burn test which you can view on this website. Also, the lettering on your shirt is put on through a screen printing process utilizing a chemical ink known as plastisol. As the name implies this is a plastic type of product that will burn even more rapidly than the fabric. Our shirt is engineered to resist fire and our lettering process is also fire resistant.  Why take the risk of wearing a garment that will burn rapidly when you don't have to?

2. Is this shirt comfortable to wear?

Our shirt is made from 100% cotton. It feels and acts like any other cotton t-shirt that you have worn. You will notice no difference. This shirt is very comfortable and soft and will be a very user-friendly work garment. This shirt is very well constructed with taped seams in the shoulder area to resist wear and tear from suspenders and web gear, as well as, doubled seams at the sleeves and on the hem.

3. I've seen fire resistant t-shirts on the market, what is different about yours?

Yes, there are other t-shirts available with fire resistant features. Some of these are very good products but some of them have a rough scratchy feel. Our t-shirt feels and acts like a good quality cotton t-shirt.

Our shirt is printed with the Derma-Gard Safety Printing Technique which allows us to provide the t-shirt as 100% completely fire resistant.

Also, the other shirts that we have seen are being offered at three to five times the price of our shirt.

4. How can you offer your shirt at such a reduced price from others in the market?

The two major principals of Derma-Gard have 40 years experience each in textile manufacturing. We have spent our working lives in the management of textile factories. We know how to make textile fabrics and how to do it efficiently and correctly. We are bringing this experience to this product line. We have developed a process that will allow us to produce a superior product at a very effective price. We have friends and family who are firefighters and we believe that we can assist in their safety by providing this product. Our mission is to use American know-how to produce a product, at a fair price, to better assist and protect American firefighters.

5. Why do I need a fire resistant t-shirt?

The NFPA first began to address the need for improved safety in station/work uniforms in 1982. Over the years the specification has been revised and amended to accommodate the feasibility of providing a safe product. In the early years, NFPA-1975, mandated the use of fire resistant fabrics. This did not work out because the state of the technology at that point did not produce a "user-friendly" comfortable work garment. The fabric was rough and scratchy. The other problem became the cost of these garments in relation to them being secondary protective gear.

Our products are comfortable and we are providing them at a price that is very competitive with what you are currently paying for a t-shirt that does not provide this protection.

If the NFPA has been working on this problem for 26 years, and if our product performs as we say, why would you not want to wear it? It's just common sense.

6. What does the printing (lettering) do to the fire resistant nature of the shirt?

Since most firefighters t-shirts are worn with identifying printing on the back and sometimes on the front of the shirt as well, we investigated this question. The printing on these shirts is usually associated with the name of the department and other affiliations of the department. Most of the shirts that we have seen have been printed using the screen printing method with plastisol type inks and adhesives to attach the lettering to the shirt. In our testing we have found that these letters do burn and at a rate that is faster than that of the cotton fabric. Obviously, this makes the t-shirt more flammable than without lettering.

It is also interesting to review what the NFPA has to say about the lettering on these shirts. In NFPA-1975, item #A.3.3.7 - "emblems or patches used on station/work uniforms are not included in the test requirements of this standard. Users are cautioned that emblems or patches with thick adhesive backings could melt and contribute to burn injury."

We have also heard from firefighters who have seen or experienced burn injuries associated with the plastic lettering, the so called "tattoo marks" and steam burns from moisture build-up user the lettering. Our lettering process is all natural and utilizes the cotton material to form the letters which eliminates the potential of these types of burns.

It is for this reason that we have proceeded in a different direction and developed the Derma-Gard Safety Printing Method which enables us to produce a shirt and lettering that is 100% fire resistant.


7. What is the Derma-Gard Safety Printing Technique?

Again, we have tapped into our textile manufacturing background to find a solution to the problem of lettering that will burn and render the shirt's fire resistance to be less effective. In our search to solve this problem we screen printed our fire resistant shirt to observe what would happen. Our observation was that when we set a flame to the plastisol lettering it burned readily until it burned away the lettering and the flame hit the fire resistant fabric. When this happened the fire resistant nature of the fabric took over and eventually extinguished the flame. Our feeling was that this was just not good enough. Why should a firefighter wear anything into a thermal event that would contribute to possible injury?

Also, we noticed that when you wear a shirt with screen printed plastisol lettering it is very uncomfortable when you are in a high heat environment. Just wearing a printed t-shirt to a sporting event on a hot summer day is evidence of how much heat you feel on your body in the area of the lettering. It's hot and sticky around the lettering area. Can you imagine how this must feel in the heat of a fire event. Why would any firefighter want to endure this discomfort?

Our solution is a printing technique that utilizes the base shade of the fabric, before dyeing, to mark the lettering. That is, the lettering removes the dye from the fabric in the form of the letters and leaves the fabric in the lettered areas back to it's base off-white shade. This allows us to provide you with a shirt that is 100% cotton, with no plastics to identify your shirt. This shirt is then not only 100% fire resistant, but it is all 100% cotton and exhibits the comfort of a soft breathable cotton shirt.

This technique allows us to bring this shirt to the market as not only a 100% fire resistant shirt but also a naturally cotton comfortable shirt.

8. What is the NFPA?

NFPA is an abbreviation for the National Fire Protection Association, an International Codes and Standards Organization, with headquarters in Quincy, Massachusetts. NFPA codes, standards, practices, and guides are developed through a consensus standards development process approved by the American National Standards Institute. This process brings together volunteers representing varied viewpoints and interests to achieve consensus on fire and other safety issues.

9. What is NFPA 1975?

NFPA 1975, 2004 Edition, is the current NFPA standard for Station/Work Uniforms for Fire and Emergency Services. This includes the standard navy blue t-shirt that most fire departments use as a work shirt.

10. What is the history of NFPA-1975?

The NFPA began work on NFPA-1975 in 1982, in response from the fire services request to establish requirements for flame resistant station uniform clothing. The first edition was issued in 1985 and called for fire resistant station uniform clothing as standard. In 1994, the committee more clearly defined what a station/work uniform was intended to be and that, because of the limited protection it affords, it is not of itself, a primary protective garment. However, a station/work uniform should not cause or contribute to injury from an unexpected thermal exposure. In 1995, the fourth edition, made a major change whereby flame resistant garments were no longer required exclusively. Garments were now allowed to be made from flame resistant fabrics or from cotton or wool fabrics. This was primarily based on calls for a more "user-friendly" or comfortable garment. During the adoption process of the 1999 edition, a floor amendment removed the requirement for flame resistant fabrics and the flame resistance test and permitted the use of nominally 100% cotton or 100% wool fabrics. This then led to fabric thermal stability problems primarily with wool, but also with cotton, that could contribute to the possible injury of the wearer. The concern being that due to the very nature of emergency service personnel they can be exposed to unknown or unexpected ignition sources when primary protective clothing is not being worn. Also personnel are wearing clothing made from these fabrics under their primary protective gear and the possibility of degradation of these fabrics exists and can lead to more severe injury for the wearer. In response to these problems the new addition sets standards for thermal stability of fabrics. The committee also established optional criteria so that organizations can specify flame resistant fabrics for station/work uniforms and have the means to measure the fire resistance of these fabrics. This option also applies to manufacturers who wish to label their products as being in compliance. These standards define acceptable fabrics for station/work uniforms.

11. What does all of the above mean to me as a firefighter?

In summary, this means that the fire service and the NFPA have been concerned about the safety of station/work uniforms for 26 years, going back to 1982. These concerns revolve around exposure to an unexpected thermal event and also to the reliability of the fabrics that are being worn under the primary protective gear from a thermal stability standpoint. The early attempts at requiring flame resistant station/work uniforms did not stand, due to the failure of the products to provide the wearer with a garment that was comfortable, reliable, performed to the standard, and were cost effective. For these reasons, the standard was relaxed to permit non flame resistant fabrics, primarily 100% cotton, certainly in the case of the popular t-shirt.

It is our experience in visiting fire departments that in some cases they have been sold t-shirts that are blends of cotton with polyester. The firefighters are not experts in textile fabric construction and are usually unaware of this fact. Polyester is a synthetic fiber, which is actually made from petroleum based chemicals. Obviously, polyester will melt and drip when exposed to fire which will make any burn injury to the wearer that much worse. This is why the NFPA is concerned about the thermal stability of the fabrics that you wear under your primary protective clothing.

In summary, all of the previous answer says to you, that the NFPA has been concerned for many years about the need for proper station/work uniforms due to the potential injury ramifications to the firefighter. It is important what you wear under your primary gear. Your secondary protective gear is a key part of your overall protection. This is the need that our product fills.


12. Is this shirt certified as passing NFPA 1975?

Not at this time, for a product to be certified as being in compliance with NFPA 1975, it must meet many standards and it must be certified by an independent testing organization.

The most important of these standard tests is ASTM D 6413-99, "Standard Test Method for Flame Resistance of Textiles (Vertical Test)." This is commonly known as the Flammability Test. NFPA 1975 states in item #7.5.1, that the item shall be tested using ASTM D 6413-99 method and shall have an average char length of not more than six (6) inches, shall have an average after-flame of not more than 2.0 seconds, and shall not melt or drip.

We have tested our product at an independent certified testing laboratory with the following results;

Average char length averaged 4.2 inches in both the length and width with a maximum high individual char length of 4.5 inches. We had no after-flame (0.0 seconds), and no melt or drips. As you can see we clearly pass the standards set for flammability testing as required by NFPA 1975.

We are in the process of conducting the other tests as required by NFPA 1975 and will post the results as the testing is concluded. We anticipate that we will complete this testing in the near future and we are certain that our shirt will pass. The burn test that we conducted using the extreme heat from an oxy-acetylene torch (6,300 degrees F), which we have filmed and displayed on this website, leaves us totally confident that we will pass the thermal stability testing.

We will then be required to work with an accredited independent certification organization to submit our products for certification. It is our intention to undertake this process so that in the future we will be able to say that our product meets the national standard but this cannot be done until an independent testing organization verifies our test results.

13. How long does the fire retardant effect last?

The flame retardant effect is retained for the normal life cycle of the garment, provided that the care instructions are followed.

14. What are the laundry recommendations?

Normal home laundry techniques are acceptable. Normal off the shelf laundry detergents are no problem. Drying should be carried out at low temperatures, over drying should be avoided.

It is not advisable to use fabric softeners, especially softening sheets, as these have a detrimental effect on fire retardant finish. Fabric softeners are based on cationic softeners and wax based products that are flammable in their own right and are best avoided.

15. Has this product been tested for dermatological effects?

Yes, the product has been tested extensively with no adverse effects. Dermatological tests indicate no irritation to the skin. Tests on saliva and sweat yielded no harmful effects. After exposure to fire, analysis of the combustion gases by different methods showed no significant differences when compared to untreated cotton fabric. Meets OEKO-TEX Standard 100 requirements rating, product class II, direct skin contact.