New Delhi: Burn injuries are a worry. And after the horrific helicopter crash this month killing 13 people, including General Bipin Rawat, even more so. 

The Defence Research and Development Organisation or DRDO have just readied fire fighting suits that are more fire-resistant. 

This structural firefighting suit was handed over to Special Secretary, internal affairs, MHA. It can be used not only by army firefighters but by state fire services as well, which will allow rescue personnel to enter a building on fire to rescue people. The DRDO versions have exceeded the European EN-469 standard and exceed the protection level mandated by the American 1971 standard. 

The DRDO developed structural firefighting are cheaper, indigenous and weigh 2.8  kgs, which is much lighter than the commercial imported suits.

DRDO is also developing a special Fire Entry suit can allow the firefighter to go inside a fire or for that matter, an aircraft or helicopter to perform rescue operations. 

Rescue personnel in these special suits can be inside a 'fire zone' for 150 seconds, a lot of time when every second is of enormous value. 

Dr Prasun Roy, who heads the design team says that DRDO is developing fire entry suits as well, which will be ready in the near future. These have a thermal protective performance of 300 which means that they can allow the firefighters to be inside a 'fire zone' for 150 seconds.

These fire entry suits that can be used by the petrochemical industries as well. If a leaky valve has to be dealt with in a burning building, these suits, which can now be manufactured indigenously, are ideal for the job.   

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