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Clip description
This clip shows a 1963 field test on a survival tent prototype used to increase the rate of survival for firefighters trapped in a fire. Dr AR King, who participated in the field test, talks about the survival tent.
Curator’s notes
In 1962 the CSIRO published A Preliminary Report on a Survival Tent for Rural Firefighters, based on the research done by its Division of Physical Chemistry. By 1963, when this film was made, the survival tent was in its third prototype and had undergone some minor changes including the shift from an upright cone-shaped tent to one in which a man could lie down.
The survival tent was inspired by the story of a man who lived through the Black Friday bushfires of 1939 by dropping a blanket over his head. The tent was made of aluminium foil and fibreglass cloth, and only recommended for use by trained firefighters in emergency situations such as when trapped in a bushfire. The survival tent seems to have disappeared into oblivion, but fire-protective clothing works on the same general principle of deflecting the intense heat radiation that causes fatal second and third degree burns.
