MSA Safety Inc. announced debuts its new fire helmet and showcases safety technology solutions that are helping to connect and protect firefighters. The FDIC, held annually in Indianapolis, Indiana, is one of the world's largest firefighter conferences and attracts more than 30,000 fire service professionals each year. This year, MSA Safety is debuting its newest fire service product, the MSA Cairns® 1836 Fire Helmet, named in honor of Cairns Helmets' founding year.

In the North American fire service market, the Cairns 1836 is one of the lightest weight traditional-style fire helmets available. With a reduced ride height, the helmet enhances comfort, fit and balance for the wearer, and features a patent-pending slide-lock system, eliminating the need for special tools for disassembly, which promotes quicker and easier maintenance. FDIC attendees will also see the latest enhancements to MSA's Connected Firefighter Platform, an ecosystem of hardware and software technologies that help fire departments better manage personal protective equipment and related data associated with use and maintenance.

The Connected Firefighter Platform is centered around MSA Safety's G1 self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). Part of the Platform featured this year is MSA FireGrid software and its Inventory Management capabilities. By using FireGrid to digitize tasks like equipment compliance checks and inspection schedules, Inventory Manager addresses equipment management challenges, eliminates paperwork and makes information easily accessible in a fire department's FireGrid account.

This helps departments better track equipment location and usage, and manage equipment cleaning, inspection and maintenance, which ultimately enhances equipment longevity. Other MSA offerings that integrate with the Platform include the LUNAR® Connected Device, a handheld tool that provides search and rescue capabilities for firefighters and serves as a personal thermal imaging camera; the MSA HUB, a wireless, cloud-connected gateway for on-scene and remote monitoring; and ALTAIR® portable gas detectors. In addition, MSA Safety will highlight the impact and value of the data that is available from the Connected Firefighter Platform.

Attendees will see how data transmitted directly from the G1 SCBA to the cloud and integrated with FireGrid can enhance safety and help to make on-scene decision making, remote monitoring, and post-event analysis easier.