My name is Dr Bryan Ormond and I am the Director of the North Carolina State University’s Milliken Textile Protection and Comfort Center (TPACC), a role I took over in July 2025.
Whilst I am now Director, I have been at TPACC since I started graduate school at the University 18 years ago.
TPACC is a nonprofit center within the college, after being established 31 years ago. We focus on PPE (personal protective equipment) and performance apparel.
The basis of our work is looking at what a firefighter, first responder or soldier might need in their protective clothing.
When I speak with firefighters across the country, they typically ask what we are working on next. My normal response is don’t ask me- tell me what you need and we can develop a plan to address it.
We want to make sure that firefighters are not just coming home at the end of their shift, but also at the end of their careers and we have the tools to do so.
Dr Bryan Ormond
Early in my career, my focus was always on textile and analytical chemistry and hazmat protective clothing, but when the issue of firefighter cancer began to grow, I pivoted.
My group has completed significant work looking at particulate blocking hoods for firefighters and developing particulate and vapor protective garments.
One of the main areas that I have been working on for the last eight years is the controversial issue of PFAS in the fire service and the transition that is currently happening with gear.
Firefighters face daily exposure to numerous toxic and carcinogenic substances on the scene, at the station and in their gear.
Eliminating these exposures can seem daunting for firefighters when they realize the multiple exposure routes and difficulty of getting everyone to focus on cleaning and decontamination both of their skin and their gear.
However, I always say that it is not about eliminating your exposure but mitigating it and trying to cut it down every single day.
My new role is an incredible thing, but I don’t know that I ever aspired to it initially. I think the leadership role found me, especially since I have been at TPACC since I was a grad student.
The center plays a pivotal role in making sure the fire and safety industry are receiving high quality individuals, who are leading the charge in putting firefighter health and safety first.
It was founded in 1994 with the focus of looking at protective clothing and balancing the trade-offs.,
Historically, these trade-offs focused on the balance between thermal protection and thermal comfort. The TPACC facilities allow us to holistically assess all aspects of the protective clothing, from the material to full garment levels.
We have multiple test labs in the center- I would say we are a testing center first and foremost.
Our most renowned lab is our Thermal Protection Lab, that is the home to PyroMan™, which is our instrumented manikin that allows us to simulate full flashover conditions.
Dr Bryan Ormond
Dr Roger Barker, who was the founder of TPACC, has been in charge and leading the center for the past 30 years, so stepping into the role as its second ever leader is a big opportunity with big shoes to fill.
On top of this, Dr Barker was my PhD advisor and so I have always worked very closely with him. I’m extremely fortunate to have his support and the confidence of the center’s staff and students as I step into this new role.
I’m excited to see what the next 30 years look like and how we will continue to change and grow with the needs of firefighters and other first responders.
I always say working with firefighters is one of the most rewarding groups you can ever work with. The work that we do at TPACC doesn’t just stay in the lab.
We are directly helping to produce new gear which is on the backs of firefighters- not just in our country but across the world.
Dr Bryan Ormond
I’ve been able to see this impact firsthand. We were recently at a training facility local to us, where we ran some trials and I noticed that one of the firefighters who walked in front of me was wearing the turnout gear that we developed to limit exposure to smoke and soot particles.
This was a full circle moment, as I distinctly remembered when we were just starting to come up with the idea for that project proposal and going through the process of the entire project.
I’ve heard it said many times that TPACC is the best kept secret in the industry, but I don’t think that is where we want to be anymore.
Our goal is to make sure that everyone in the fire service, the protective clothing industry and the fire service research community are aware of our testing and research capabilities, the expertise of our staff and the work that we are doing to help improve the health and safety of our first responders.
When we think about firefighter cancer, we immediately focus on the exposures that firefighters face.
A lot of the time, we write off respiratory exposure as a significant route because firefighters normally have their self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) to protect them.
However, everyone on-scene doesn’t always use respiratory protection. It is typically only used by firefighters that actively entering the structure.
Dr Bryan Ormond
This is why I always tell my students to just stand back and watch when they go out to training facilities or to see live burns. Just by watching the job, it doesn’t take you long to realize why there may be exposure problems.
From the respiratory side, your lungs are one of the most important pieces to protect in your internal body. They must be protected first.
One of the ways we describe this to firefighters is by saying if you smell smoke then you are breathing chemicals in.
Structural firefighters in the building typically wear all their PPE, but incident commanders or anyone standing right outside such as pump operators rarely wear respiratory protection.
We know that from studies that have been done at the University of Arizona with the Tucson Fire Department that the pump operator faced similar exposures as the firefighters who went in the structure.
On the other hand, progress needs to me made on limiting the exposure for wildland firefighters.
At TPACC we are working on projects right now where we are trying to develop and understand respiratory protection for wildland firefighters because currently there is nothing in the market.
For wildland firefighters, the “state-of-the-art” equipment is a bandana – which is completely unacceptable.
Dr Bryan Ormond
Compared to structural firefighters, those in the wildland will be out in the field for multiple weeks.
They won’t be clean shaven to get a good seal to the face and they will be doing heavy manual labour all day which makes wearing a respirator increasingly difficult, if not impossible.
I think now is the perfect time to raise the issue of wildland firefighting respiratory protection because the majority of the population in the world understands how difficult wearing masks can be.
One of the things that came out of the pandemic is that everyone has had an experience with wearing masks.
In the next semester at the University, I am hoping to get a group of students and pose them the challenge of having to make a better bandana.
This will be an exercise for the students to use their imagination which is the advantage of being at the University.
You constantly have a supply of individuals who haven’t been in the industry and don’t have the experience of being on the fireground, so they aren’t set in their ways.
I’m going to turn this assignment over to them and say you’ve got a year to figure it out. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.
