Firefighter Hydration Evaluation

Wildland firefighters, who work long hours in extreme terrain and weather conditions, must be properly hydrated. Many firefighters rely on plastic 0.95-liter canteens, supplied by the cache (NFES 0037), for hydration. While inexpensive and simple, these canteens have a history of complaints: they are not durable, caps are misplaced or pop off, and they do not keep the water chilled. Some crews have been experimenting with different bladder systems and water bottles (i.e., Nalgene), other than Government Services Administration (GSA) canteens. The National Technology and Development Program of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, was tasked with determining if the new hydration systems should be included in the national cache system to augment (or replace) the standard issue canteens.