Safety Alert and Recall Issued for Blaze Fighter Glove

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The Glove Corporation, a manufacturer of structural firefighting gloves and a participant in the SEI Certification Program, today notified SEI that it was discontinuing its manufacturing operations.  Subsequent reports in the New York Times and other publications have confirmed that the company has ceased doing business.

On January 14, 2011, The Glove Corporation initiated a voluntary recall of one of its product lines, the Blaze Fighter glove.  It issued a Safety Notice that was posted on SEI's website and, as reported by Mr. Allen Town, the company's president, e- mailed and faxed to over 180 of the product's distributors, over sixty percent of which are believed to have responded.  The Glove Corporation contractually is required to continue those notification efforts and report on its progress until SEI is satisfied that all reasonable measures have been made to notify those affected, and that obligation continues in force even if the company has gone out of business.

The Glove Corporation has informed SEI that it is unable to replace or offer a refund for the gloves. 

The Glove Corporation recalled the Blaze Fighter gloves after SEI's annual recertification testing determined that the product line did not comply with the applicable standard, the 2007 edition of NFPA 1971, Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, specifically the Conductive Heat Resistance Test 1 found in Section 7.7.5 of that standard.  These previously-scheduled tests were performed at the same time that SEI initiated an investigation in response to reports of firefighters receiving burns to the back of the hand while wearing this model glove.  According to information provided by TGC in this investigation, the manufacturing change that altered the composition of the back of the glove is limited to gloves produced beginning in December 2009 bearing lot numbers 12109-12310.

The Blaze Fighter gloves bearing these affected lot numbers can no longer be considered SEI-certified as compliant with the 2007 edition of the NFPA 1971 standard, or sold bearing the SEI certification mark. 


Author:Safety Equipment Institute News Release