The History of Phenix Technology: Helmets by Firefighters for Firefighters
Phenix Technology was founded in 1972 by two young firefighters. Ronny Coleman was the Chief of the San Clemente Fire Dept and Ray Russell was the Assistant Chief of the California State Fire Training Division. Their objective was to make safe helmets that had good balance, longevity, were light weight, comfortable, fit properly, and could be used for all emergencies. The helmets had to look and perform as well or better then anything that had been produced up to that time. They had to build fire helmets that met the needs of forestry, urban, or metropolitan fire service. These helmets had to stand up to the most rigorous conditions encountered today and in the future for the fire and rescue service.
In 1976, the US Fire Administration and US OSHA got together a group of fire service personnel, Manufacturers, and head safety engineers to develop the “MODEL CRITERIA FOR FIREFIGHTERS PROTECTIVE HELMETS”. This standard was then adopted by US OSHA and became the law of the land. Many other state OSHA agenies adopted this standard which gave manufacturers something to shoot for. Phenix helmets already met the standard when it came out and became a very popular line of helmets. As the NFPA standard was changed every five years or so, Phenix helmets would continue to meet the performance criteria.
It is now some 30 years later and PHENIX TECHNOLOGY is still providing top of the line compliant firefighter head safety systems. And they are still used with complete satisfaction by thousands of firefighters throughout the world.
In 2000 it was decided at PHENIX that we needed to get into the leather helmet business. The object would be the same; a safe, light weight, comfortable and well balanced helmet that would provide head protection without causing discomfort to the user when it was worn for long periods of time. We have accomplished this goal and our new leather Phenix 1500 TL2 has become very popular in the US fire service.
Please look around our web site, www.phenixfirehelmets.com, and see what we are offering. By the way, those two young firefighters are still here and are available to answer any questions you might have about firefighter head protection.
