Abstract
It has generally been recognized that the fire protective cloth is one of the most important fire extinguishing equipments because it governs the efficiency of fire suppression as well as the safety of fire fighter's life. There are diverse circumstances in a blazer, thus, the protection functions from these dangers are the basic requirements of fire protective cloth. The fire protective cloth needs barrier functions from external heat, mechanical hazards, toxic chemicals, and so on and also needs the emission functions of wearer's body heat and sweat. When the cloth is worn repeatedly in the fire extinguishing field, it should be damaged and could not work properly in the long run. However, the fire protective cloth is very expensive and cannot be accommodated so frequently. For this purpose, this research was done as a part of work to set up the life time of the fire protective cloth. To evaluate the durablility, the change of mechanical properties the fire protective cloth worn by fire fighters for one year in the fire extinguishing field were compared with the new one. The tensile properties of the outer fabric of the cloth were damaged mostly by radiant heat and day light, however, the water proof properties of mid layer were reduced by repeated bending and washing. The decline of fabric physical properties of radiant heat was greater under wet state than under dry state.