Orange Resident Patents New Apparatus for Fire Fighters

Orange resident William (Bill) Nicholetti has spent a lifetime fighting fires, first as a volunteer firefighter with the Derby Connecticut Fire Department and later as its Fire Chief. As a public servant, he is dedicated to serving the needs of the public. As a department chief, he was just as concerned about responding to emergencies as quickly and efficiently as possible. One issue that perplexed him greatly was the time and effort it took him to don, or strap on, his SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus). As a volunteer firefighter, Bill carried his equipment in the back of his SUV. When an emergency occurred, he drove his own vehicle to the location. His SCBA straps would get tangled among themselves and with other equipment. Untangling the straps, positioning the tank so he could don it, all took time that delayed his engagement with the emergency.

During times of fire and hazardous chemical emergencies, seconds count. This fact was not lost on Nicoletti, but Bill is a natural born problem solver. It wasn’t long before he started searching for a way to solve this dilemma. “To solve the problem I started thinking of ways to mount my SCBA. Whatever solution I came up with had to be strong enough to support the apparatus, but flexible enough that I could remove the SCBA quickly and easily when the need arose”.

The only mounts that were available were vertical mounts for high side compartments. There was no practical solution in the market place for the type of vehicle that Bill and most other volunteer firemen drive to a fire or emergency. There must be a better way, he thought, and Bill began work on a prototype for the Quick-Don.

The first prototypes had a locking arm that was welded on. After tests, Bill realized that this approach did not offer a long lifespan for the Quick-Don, so now the locking arms are part of a single piece of steel. There are no welded pieces. The Quick-Don will now outlive the service life of an SCBA. The locking arms were built to quickly lock and unlock, so it’s just as easy to store the SCBA as it is to don it.

With his Quick-Don SCBA perfected, Bill applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for a patent. His patent was received and he created started Genco Fire Equipment LLC to sell the device to volunteer firefighters and municipal fire departments.

The Quick-Don SCBA has proved to be both practical and effective for SCBA donning.

Under testing, using the Quick-Don has cut by half the amount of time a firefighter needs to don the SCBA. As any firefighter knows, these are lifesaving seconds. For more information, visit the Genco Fire Equipment website at http://www.quickdonscba.com/.

n)br( (