Alpaca is a natural fibre that is highly fire resistant yet doesn't irritate the skin. Alpaca is quite different to wool in that it does not have protruding scales along the fibres which with wool can irritate the skin and also causes piling of woolen fabric. Alpaca is also water resistant so perspiration won't penetrate the filter reducing the filtration efficiency (instead will run down face keeping you cool). The specially developed non-woven alpaca material (we called Pacastat) allows easy breathing and sits in among facial hair to ensure no leakage. wool scales protrude - alpaca are compact https://static.wixstatic.com/media/undefined

It is common for the filters to easily last twelve hours on the fireground, even in dusty conditions. Just tap off any external excess when having a drink break. We suggest they are washed after daily use but depends on useage and individual preferences. (http://preferences.You) You can expect them to last for years just with simple hand washing. Just be sure to keep them from your dog - we've had four cases of "the dog ate it" so far...

The Fair Air fire mask provides minimal interference to speech so talking on the radio etc is no problem while wearing the mask. At the prolonged campaigns such as the massive Fort McMurray fire in Canada, firefighters were even sleeping in their masks. Try doing that with any other...

The logo on the front and label should be right way up i.e. with the waves below. Also the wire that holds the mask to the shape of the nose can be felt inside the top edge. It helps to bend this wire before putting the mask on to help position it prior to fastening the Velcro.

Fitted properly with the internal wire formed across the nose, you won't have issues with glasses or goggles fogging up as the exhaled air follows the course of least resistance - back through the filter.

The Fair Air fire mask is made in Victoria, Australia. The core component of the filters, the needled alpaca material is made by the CSIRO in Geelong and the FR cotton material used on the holders for the binding is made in Wangaratta. The eyelet material for the holders is currently FR cotton but will soon be made from FR aramid specially knitted by a Melbourne company. This should enhance durability and fire resistance even more and increase the Australian made content further. The unique elastic is specially made in Melbourne. Final manufacture and packing of the masks is done in various regional towns in Victoria SA and NSW and potentially expanding to other states and overseas. We currently employ some displaced Ukrainians in Australia to make the masks here and potentially back in Ukraine when the war is won.

Yes. The face side of the filters now has an improved needled alpaca material (Pacastat) needled onto a very fine, woven material which keeps the alpaca fibres in the filter yet still providing the comfort of alpaca on the skin. Tests for the ISO 9151 standard now show that the new filters take well over a minute to rise 24C when exposed to 600+C flame compared to the original 33 seconds! This international standard requires only 17 seconds. No other respirator has ever passed this test. This year we are undertaking certification to the US Government agency NIOSH* standards and expect to be rated as N99, far higher than the usual N95. Then the mask will undergo certification to NFPA** Standard 1984 for Respitory Protection for Wildfire Firefighting Operations. IT WILL BE THE FIRST! We have developed a way to also improve filtration by removing carbon monoxide. We plan to have this new version in production before the end of the year but is dependent on having a machine developed to combine the materials very accurately. *NIOSH = National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health **NFPA = National Fire Protection Association