The Guardians' Line was founded in late 2023. The idea for our firefighter hazard tape came to mind during instruction for the Florida Fire Incident Safety Officer course when we came across information relating to the NFPA standards on hazard control zones. One of these hazard zones was a NO-ENTRY zone which NFPA requires to be marked off with red/white chevron tape. At the time, I was a 15-year veteran (volunteer and career) with a large fire department, and I had never, once seen red/white chevron tape on an emergency scene. I began thinking back to common hazards that I had encountered throughout my career such as downed electrical lines, poorly lit swimming pools, fall/trip hazards, and potential structural collapses and then began thinking about how those hazards were marked on scene. "If" those hazards were marked, they were always marked with the only product available; yellow fire line do not cross tape. The same yellow tape that we use to keep civilians out of our scene. Then I thought about how many times I have walked past this same yellow fire scene tape thinking that it was intended for me, it was intended for the general public. Many times I could have been wrong and more importantly, dead.

After completing some research, we found that there was not a single product on the market being sold with the intended use of protecting firefighters from common fireground hazards. With this in mind, we entered the development phase of The Guardians' Line firefighter hazard tape. Our product is NFPA-compliant for hazard zone control and OSHA-compliant in regard to size, width, thickness, and material of barrier tapes. We are still unable to find any other product on the market designed specifically for firefighter hazards. Similar warning tapes, which aren't firefighter specific, cost in upwards of $200 for a 1000' of tape whereas our product is $39.99 for 1000'. 

During our initial campaign, we found that almost every department that we talked to, has no specific equipment or policy in place to identify hazards specific to their firefighters. Many departments bluntly us that they "use the new guy" or admittedly said "the same yellow tape that we all walk past." With that said, our vision is not only for every department to be carrying a tape that warns firefighters of hazards specific to them, but also for firefighters to be educated in the recognition of no-entry zones. We have researched many near-miss incidents where we feel confident that no-entry tape could have helped. 

I have attached some pictures of The Guardians' Line firefighter hazard tape in use for reference. If you have any questions or if there is any additional information that you would like, please don't hesitate to reach out. We appreciate your interest in helping us make the fire service a little bit safer in the generations to come.

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