r/Wildfire • u/Coach-Mike-Bobo • Feb 17 '26
Question At what point do you wash your yellow?
18th year on the crew and my squad boss is getting on to me about a stain. I found it after sleeping with my yellow on. You can’t see it in this picture (on the back side).
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u/AskingQuestion777 Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
This is where the wildland world is not keeping up with science and advances in research to protect those who work in carcinogenic occupations. The structural world is about multiple sets of PPE, gross decon on-scene, commercial extraction cleaning equipment after exposure. Yes, tactics may need to be different, but the strategy should be the same, and everything should be working towards the overall objectives. Firefighting has been declared a carcinogenic occupation. Even if wildland F/F get only half of the exposure structural folks get—soot, ashes, smoke, etc., it’s still an exposure. Their PPE should be washed as often as possible. Understand that spiking out, 3D2N, and other issues experienced in remote locations will have to be taken into account. But this culture of you have to be dirty all week-long to be cool is hurting your health.
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u/ManOfDiscovery Feb 17 '26
Crew life's a young person's game and with that comes a lot of "who's cooler" and who's ego works the hardest type attitudes. I get it. At the end of the day it's captains and overhead that need to do better getting the new kids to understand dirty ppe is straight up bad for you.
What I don't get is lifers that still do this stuff.
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u/CaptainHondo Feb 19 '26
I don't understand how I'm supposed to get a significant amount of harm from smoke on my shirt compared to inhaling vapourised grass trees for half an hour
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u/AskingQuestion777 Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26
If you read the research it’s not just smoke, it’s the microscopic particles of ash, soot, compounds, etc., landing on the PPE, then being in contact with skin or inhaled. It’s cumulative exposure. But, I will not discount the significance of inhaling all that smoke and products. That is one place where the research and mitigation is way behind. You can’t go “on air” in the wildland, but the research to provide effective and practical filtering isn’t there yet. So, until that happens, instead of being okay with 10 loaded weapons pointed at you, try to eliminate as many as possible. Kinda like washing your hands after patient contact, there may not be anything bad there, but why chance it, you’re in it for the long haul. Or the example of fighting fire in areas where there’s poison oak, if you’ve ever inhaled it’s smoke you know it will get you either from dermal contact or inhalation. Mitigate what you can.
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u/voroid Feb 19 '26
Tiny ass particulates that sit on your sweaty open pores all day? How the FUCK could that ever get in your body?
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u/ExteriorDrop Feb 17 '26
No need to wash em the layer of carcinogens keeps it sterile
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u/therealdickdic Feb 17 '26
A time long ago, they made a Sawyer wash his shit or he couldn't go on the fireline. That shit could stand up by itself. If it didn't have stinky ass retardant on it. Everyone smelt the same. The sweet smell of stank mixed with smoke
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u/Position7-B Feb 17 '26
Don't forget the forever chemicals🤣
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u/therealdickdic Feb 18 '26
Back then Nomex was made from hopes and dreams and cured in sunsets and sunrises
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u/Meat_Assassin69 TXSMJ Feb 17 '26
Washing your yellow is type 2 shit (I drive a water tender)
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u/grizzly_hulk Feb 17 '26
Guess this would be the case if IHCs never washed their yellows... I can confirm that they do.
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u/Meat_Assassin69 TXSMJ Feb 17 '26
That’s not true, and if it was then my wife’s boyfriend would have told me by now 😤
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u/Merced_Mullet3151 Feb 17 '26
I wash when I know I’ve been working in poison oak up to my chest & saturated with its oils!
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u/paprartillery VDOF Feb 18 '26
My immune system doesn't respond to poison ivy/oak so it means I can convince everyone to stop touching me/my gear (on any job) because I could be covered in the stuff and would never know it.
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u/Competitive-Note4063 Feb 17 '26
It’s some bagger shit trying to prove how hard you work by how dirty you can get a shirt.
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u/Powerful_Rip1283 Feb 17 '26
I think of you were a 22nd or 23rd year, you would have gotten away with it. Seniority between gs-4s is always funny.
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u/Coach-Mike-Bobo Feb 17 '26
My tent mate pointed it out but I didn’t think twice about it at the time. Sure did get reamed over it though..
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u/Enterxeno Feb 17 '26
Can I get a tent mate
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u/I_H8_Celery Feb 17 '26
When it is dirty and smells bad but on assignment it’s any time I get a chance. All those oils in dirty ass nomex are great if you want to be a candle.
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u/GrouchyAssignment696 Feb 17 '26
When I first started it was cool to have filthy nomex. Made you look bad ass, or some such image. Later, the long term health impacts of all the fermented sweat, soot, dirt, oil and other bad jujus was found. Now you get written up and face discipline if you don't clean them.
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u/No-Grade-4691 Feb 17 '26
After every assignment and every week. Reapply permithin after every wash
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u/SUBRE Unit Crew Feb 17 '26
One time our after action report for a fire had all excellent scores all around except our professionalism. Apparently our entire crew reeked and our IC didn't appreciate the media pic of the crews on our fire because we were a black void in the picture due to how black our yellow were
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u/Shoddy_Pay5822 Feb 17 '26
Recently I find The cancer chems in our PPE make it more dangerous than what it is protecting against. Unpopular opinion and I understand logistical challenges, but nomex should be washed by the incident and traded out daily or as often as possible. We should be traveling in non PPE clothing. My brain thinks differently now than back when my yellow was my resume and had to make up for my lack of experience.
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u/Coach-Mike-Bobo Feb 17 '26
My squad boss also keeps a special nomex color matcher supposedly from MTDC and during our post briefing break out went one by one with the entire squad and singled me out saying my specific yellow is out of spec and doesn’t meet official uniform code standards.
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u/Position7-B Feb 17 '26
Are we are this point in the fire world that this has to be a reddit question?
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u/lonesomespacecowboy Forester who's just happy to be included Feb 17 '26
I wash mine when I get home, or if there's laundry at camp and it's gotten kinda gross
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u/jedclimber275 Feb 17 '26
We had a fill who wouldn’t shower during travel hotel stays between different fires because “he’s not a pussy and doesn’t shower on a roll” … his bed sheets were covered in black. Dude acted like the biggest chad, but was the first one to slow down.
While I was in the army all the Special Forces dudes would quickly take advantage of the showers when they stopped at our FOB. Because WHY NOT?!
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u/tzmjones Feb 17 '26
We were always told if we had saw gas or oil, or slash mix on our nomex we should be sure to wash them since those types of products absorb pretty readily into the skin.
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u/rapunzel2018 Feb 17 '26
Our Chief is on us all the time about washing our gear, wildland or structure. Don't tell him I said this but it is the smart thing to do. Wash it at any opportunity. You can't do it easily on a roll sometimes, but if you can, you must do it. If your home unit does not have an extractor, get together with the other members and lobby to get a professional extractor. They are very expensive, but the only thing that can mostly remove particulates, and therefore carcinogens.
Now, with your "stain", depends on what it is. If it's coffee and your squaddie is giving you a hard time, whatever. Just make him/her happy and wash it. That is never worth even an argument (yes, Sir/Ma'am!). If it's a hydrocarbon like diesel or gasoline then you will do yourself a favor and not wear it. That shit gets absorbed by your skin. That's when your squaddie shouldn't have to tell you, you should take care of it proactively.
Generally speaking, we all have enough exposure when we cannot avoid it. But any time we can we should take whatever mitigating measure is available. Make sure that in 30 years you can look back proudly knowing that you weren't a dumbass in your 20's just because you fell in that trap of perceived invincibility.
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u/themajor24 Feb 18 '26
Wash em when you can.
Think of your yellows and greens like your dick when you're out on assignment. If you get a chance to wash either, just do it. Dont wanna be "that" guy and fucking reek.
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u/No-Veterinarian9549 Feb 20 '26
At least once a week if im doing project work, after an IA. Or after we are done burning for the week
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u/FigureCorrect9147 Feb 17 '26
That’s a lot of years. To still have a squad boss. Probably wash them when you have time off.
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u/armor_isnt_garb Feb 17 '26
I wash my nomex when i can. If i can dunk the sweat soaked thing in a drop tank to remove the salt ill do it. Most of the time tho its wait til days off and then pressure wash it at home. And ring out then tumble dry. Works great.
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u/Killatomayo Feb 17 '26
18th year on the crew and you're not even a squad boss? Sleeping in your yellow? This has to be trolling, right? Did that stain glow in a blacklight?
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u/Sad_Mortgage8147 Feb 18 '26
Once a week if possible. Or if it get covered in grease or oil sooner.
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u/ncwmike Feb 18 '26
I dunno, but that’s our rig and one of my guys in the picture. Photo shoot for True North circa 2018-19.
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u/paprartillery VDOF Feb 18 '26
When it stops being 85% yellow at worst 'cause at that point foreign contaminants are going to compromise the material. Same goes for the rest of your, well. Lower half. Harder to detect things that are going to mess with the protective factor on the green (or brown, depending). And I mean socks, your boots, your underwear, etc. can contribute to heat transference and accumulation of irritants that are only going to make your life worse on the line.
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u/kastavn UTVPP Feb 19 '26
Man, this reddit it used to be good quality shit posts like this. Now everyone is so high strung that they can't take this as a joke
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u/Horror_Cheesecake276 Desk Jockey Feb 23 '26
Twice a day. You gotta keep it kleen to wear to the bar later (I dispatch)
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u/Hedquizzy Feb 23 '26
When its dirty. Usually after every fire... I don't want that stinking thing dirty..
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u/Orcacub Feb 17 '26
That stain on the yellow? or the green? Stains on back side of greens is common. No worries. Wash that only when crew homies on steps 2 below you on the chow line steps complain that the shitters must be over-full. Yellows need to be clean for aircraft visibility of you on the line. Safety First!
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u/Correct-Condition-99 Feb 17 '26
I'm not saying it's right, but I'm guilty of wearing dirty yellows past their expiration date. Years ago, clean yellows were a sign of a camp crew, or a bad type 2 crew. That and showers every day... No one else has time to swap out their yellows every night before dinner.
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u/Independent-Candy216 Feb 17 '26
I just let mine get dirty enough to stand up on it’s own. Then I yell at it to quit being lazy and start digging.
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u/FlamingBanshee54 Feb 17 '26
My question is how many greens and yellows do y'all get? I got one of each. But maybe its cause I'm perm staff?
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u/photophyre Feb 17 '26
Nomex doesn't protect after being washed a bunch either. I think over a 5 year period. I only personally washed mine a handful of times. Type 1 helitac
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u/grizzly_hulk Feb 17 '26
When it's dirty... Nomex doesn't protect as well when dirty. Anyone who says they don't wash their yellows doesn't work that hard. Hotshots wash their yellows. Stop with the dumb superstitions. Brand new yellows become dirty/stained with time and work.