You might have seen this story in Runner's World or dozens of other places. I found it here at a site called Marathon Me. It is about a firefighter and EMT named Patrick Conrey from Clearwater, Florida, who stopped for twenty minutes while competing in a marathon to save a runner who had a heart attack. Did I mention Mr. Conrey was running the marathon in 75lbs of Firefighter gear in honor of three fallen comrades and to raise money for their children. Luckily, I was able to find for you a 2007 photo of Mr. Conrey, at a different race, running in his full gear. See it here.

In typical fashion, everyone except Mr. Conrey, credits Mr. Conrey with saving the man's life.

On behalf of everyone at DRIFIRE, CEO and President L. Gene Cone has authorized Marketing Director Stephanie Youker to ship to Mr. Conrey a complete set of DRIFIRE garments to be worn under his turnout gear, whether he is running a marathon, fighting a fire, stopping to save a man's life, or simply doing, as in this case, what firefighters typically do. It's a tribute we wish to make in honor of him and firefighters everywhere who are everyday heroes wherever they are and no matter what they may be doing.

Our own Michael Pena, National Fire / Law Enforcement Sales Manager, has received yet another rave review of our product. This time the correspondence comes from Aaron Randall, Professional Firefighter, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue TVFR). If you're not familiar with TVFR in Oregon, you can read all about them here.

Rather than add my two cents to what is already best- and most well-said by Mr. Randall, here's the unedited text of his entire email to Mike Pena:

Mike,

On August 5, 2008 our station went to our training center to take part in some live fire training. Our fire district has constructed a new burn prop out of a corrugated steel shipping container. The container is modeled after ones that have been in use in Europe for several years. The container fuel load was three wood pallets, some sheets of particle board and wood studs. The material was arranged in the far end of the 40ft container and was ignited with a propane torch.

This was the first training burn I have taken part in using the shipping container. The previous burns I attended were in concrete buildings or wood framed houses. The shipping containers lack of insulation reflected the radiant heat from the burning wood back into the structure. The container grew very hot quickly with temperatures at the ceiling reaching 1000 + degrees and in the area we were sitting it was 500 degrees five feet off the floor.

As we watched the fire behavior and its response to different water applications I noticed that my fire rated gloves and the knees on my turnouts were growing hotter as the time went by. However, my arms and shoulders were noticeably cooler because I was wearing the long sleeve silk weight DRIFIRE shirt. When we left the structure to cool off and rehydrate I felt the shirt’s wicking action cooling me off. In a matter of minutes I had cooled down and my shirt was dry. The guys wearing regular cotton shirts were still soaked and red faced from their wet shirts holding in the heat. I also noticed that the inside of my turnout jacket was dry. The other crew member’s jackets were soaked.

The other crew members and I were impressed with the performance of your company’s product. The DRIFIRE shirt really makes and difference both inside the fire building as well as afterward. I strongly believe that this product will make a difference in both firefighter safety and performance.

Aaron Randall

Recently you may recall we introduced you to the Live Fire Ministries blog which is a site hosted by Chuck Holten. He served four years in the 75th Ranger Regiment–the same unit profiled in the movie “Black Hawk Down.” He also saw combat in Panama in 1989 and, after leaving active duty, he flew helicopters in the Wisconsin National Guard while attending the University of Wisconsin. As we said last time, his site does much to support our troops.

We also mentioned he is a fan of DRIFIRE and he's been passing out some samples we provided to some other high profile people with military backgrounds, including Lt. Colonel Oliver North. Now comes a picture of Mr. Holton — and the text of a note he's written to our VP of Finance Chuck Rossi. I think you'll find both the picture and the narrative from Mr. Holton quite compelling. Here's an excerpt of his email:

Chuck,

The DRIFIRE is working very, very well.  Even in 120-degree heat, I can wear the long sleeved shirt for protection from the sun's rays and to cover my arms in case I'm in the next IED blast.  (God forbid!)

OLN  (Oliver North) has been wearing it, too.  I taped three stand-ups (me speaking directly on camera) in the last two days wearing DRIFIRE.  And am sending photos for the blog, too…

Bottom line, I love it!

Cheers,

Chuck

This month we welcome a new member of the DRIFIRE team: Shawn Patrick Connor in the position of Vice President of Sales, Government Markets. A long-experienced global military business segment specialist with extensive knowledge of textiles for military apparel systems, Mr. Connor joins DRIFIRE from his previous position as General Manager for the Global Military Business Unit of Nobel Fiber Technologies. While at Nobel Fiber Technologies for three years, where he was recruited to target national accounts and was later named Director of Sales, Mr. Connor helped lead double digit sales growth for the company. Prior to this, Mr. Connor was employed by Donaldson Company, Incorporated, an industry leader in the manufacture of filter media and software. In this role he was instrumental in the company’s double digit sales growth for eight consecutive years.

With a total of more than 20 years experience in high level sales, marketing, and operations positions in which he has led sales increases of at least 30% to 40% for a diverse range of organizations, including Government Access Incorporated, Mr. Connor’s background includes filtration, instrumentation, automotive, pharmaceutical, chemical, semiconductor, and distribution systems.

A graduate of the College of Communication from The Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, Mr. Connor has for the past eight years been an active member of the American Apparel and Footwear Association.

Meet Mr. Connor: At the upcoming Federal Business Council (FBC) event, called the 2008 Infantry Warfighting Conference, September 16-17 at the Iron Works Convention and Trade Center in Columbus, Georgia, Mr. Connor will be in attendance, representing DRIFIRE (Booth #3004). We hope if you are planning to attend and have a minute, you'll drop by the booth, get caught up on all of our recent product developments, and meet Mr. Connor.

Most everyone agrees: it seems there have been fewer IEDs exploding in Iraq. If that's true, that's a good thing. But in case anyone thinks the area is without its ongoing risks and grave threats to bodily harm, here's a recent item by the mother of a Marine on his second tour of duty. As she reports it, the problem now is that electrical fires are happening all too often. She faults poor camp construction standards. Whatever the reason in this instance, the effects of an unexpected fire are the same no matter how it started. Writes the Mom:

In June of 2008, my son’s military camp burned to the ground as a result of an electrical fire that spread rapidly throughout the camp.  Some of the Marines used axes to hack other Marines out of their burning huts.  Our Marines suffered minor burns, irritated eyes and severe sunburn as they used their shirts to shield their faces while trying to retrieve their possessions.  Had this fire occurred at night, many lives would have been lost. The Marines were told the rapidly-spreading fire resulted from a contracting error.

A DRIFIRE balaclava would come in handy in a situation like that, wouldn't it? And it's equally obvious that a Marine wearing DRIFIRE garments stands a much better chance of minimizing burn risks.