News

Lavoro helps to re-equip fire departments

Lavoro entered into a partnership with the National Association of Professional Firefighters (ANBP), which allows national firefighters to be fitted with a single boot to combat forest fires. Lavoro has developed the FÉNIX boot specifically designed to minimize the risks associated with the mission to combat forest fires and to mitigate the cases in which firefighters endanger their physical integrity through the use of inappropriate professional footwear. After several tests carried out by the ADAI / CEIF (Center for Forest Fire Studies), associated with the University of Coimbra, Lavoro's firefighter boot, which was also tested in real work situations, showed a high resistance to similar thermal impacts to forest fires (500 degrees Celsius) and good conditions of integrity for its user, even higher than the standards that determine the requirements to be observed by individual firefighting protection equipment. Lavoro, which offers several other proposals for boots for firefighters, suitable for different missions, has already in production the Fénix 2.0 boot, which configures an evolution in several domains, from design to functional particularities. HOW FÉNIX HAS BORN? In the summer of 2013, after the death of several Portuguese firefighters due to the lack of foot protection in forest fires, the authorities concluded that it was necessary to prepare footwear with a higher degree of demand. In this context, the Center for Studies on Forest Fires (CEIF), led by Professor Xavier Viegas, proposed to Lavoro a partnership to produce a boot capable of withstanding thermal impacts similar to those experienced in real fires. After completing the test phase and incorporating the main findings and improvements, the prototype was tested in a working context by 10 elements of some Fire Departments of the Central Region of Portugal throughout the summer of 2014. These tests revealed that the boot has a good thermal behavior and provides good conditions of integrity for its user, even in extreme conditions. Four years later, the Phoenix, which already protects the feet and lives of more than 10,000 Portuguese firefighters, can and should be available to all firefighters.