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Date: April 17, 1996

location: Clifton

Title: The Hot Prospects At Cairns & Brother

Author: Diana G. Lasseter

Subject: A powerhouse in the firefighters” equipment industry is selling a radical technology that promises to save lives. So why aren”t more battalions using it?

In a quiet, industrial corner of Clifton, the old world coexists with the new. Lining the back wall of a newly renovated warehouse, a dozen craftsmen stoop under lamps, silently stitching and contouring leather firefighters” helmets–just as their ancestors did more than a century ago. A few feet away three times the number of workers, surrounded by sprays of sparks, heat and mold newer plastic helmets in brilliant reds, yellows and oranges. In a nearby room sits a helmet equipped with a device that is revolutionizing the way firefighters combat fires and rescue victims.

The company is Cairns & Brother, one of the oldest makers of firefighters” equipment in the world. Run for 160 years by members of the Scottish Cairns family, Cairns & Brother has built its reputation on its trademark, the leather helmet. According to Al Santora, New York City”s Division of Safety chief, who has been with the city”s fire service for 36 years: “The helmet is a firefighter”s badge. It”s what makes him a firefighter. The New York City fire department, the largest in the U.S., has used the Cairns leather helmet since 1867. It takes a blow and lasts.”

These days, however, city officials are forcing Santora to consider more light-weight plastic helmets for New York City”s 11,300-strong fire service. Leather helmets are fast disappearing. Cairns & Brother has held on by merely a thread to its leather roots and entered new markets through the years like the manufacture of plastic helmets and firefighters” breathing apparatus.

But that is only the fringe of the high-tech generation at Cairns & Brother. Of late the company has been ablaze with attention, most recently as the subject of a March 6 “Dateline NBC” report, for a cutting-edge technology that firefighters have labeled remarkable. The device is called the Cairns Iris, and it is causing a revolution in firefighting.

The Cairns Iris is a small computer-chip driven, black-and-white television screen mounted to the top of a firefighter”s helmet that when in use, fits down over the eyes. The Cairns Iris responds to thermal energy, detecting the body heat from, say, an unconscious victim in a fire, and enabling the firefighter to see that victim through a pitch black blanket of smoke. Hand-held search cameras and similar devices have been used for years, but this is the first unit to offer such a clear image while keeping the user”s hands free. The Cairns Iris can also help firefighters pinpoint a wall fire by detecting the imprint of the hotspot behind the structure. Says Bill Manning, editor of Fire Engineering magazine in Saddle Brook: “Nothing like the Cairns Iris has come down the pike.” Adds Santora: “It gives you an incredible image. People don”t realize how blinding smoke is in a fire. The Cairns Iris can without a doubt save lives.”

Thomas Boehm, Cairns & Brother”s CEO, claims the Cairns Iris is just one more example of how the company has continually looked for “newer and better things.” Cairns & Brother was founded in Manhattan in 1836 by brothers Edward and Irving Cairns. While the company began making badges for service organizations like the police, it soon joined forces with Henry Gratacap, a leather craftsman whose shop was around the corner. The Cairns brothers bought Gratacap out in 1840 and began their trek toward becoming the leader in leather firefighting gear, primarily helmets.

In 1945 Cairns & Brother, under the direction of Edwin Cairns, the grandson of the two founders, moved to New Jersey. Boots and firefighters” clothing were then part of its line. But in the 1960s, the company began to narrow its focus to mainly helmets. According to Pete Coombs, northeast territory manager for the company and Edwin”s grandchild, Cairns & Brother “moved the industry into modern helmet technology.” The company holds numerous patents in that field.

Some industry players say Cairns & Brother may not have moved swiftly enough into the plastic firefighter helmet market, which has become crowded with such players as Bullard Manufacturing and Morning Pride. “Cairns is very well-known in the industry,” says Roland Straten, president of Associated Fire Protection in Paterson, which sells fire-protection equipment like extinguishers. “I”ve heard they got a bit stodgy for a while,” he continues. “But they have become more aggressive. They are rejuvenating.”

That rejuvenation has included the upgrading of Cairns & Brother”s Clifton operation, which the company”s principal owner, Bill McCutcheon, also a grandson to Edwin, says cost “several hundreds of thousands of dollars.” He adds that the company “has had a gorgeous rebirth,” during which a clothing unit was sold in late 1994. Boehm, who joined as CEO in January and who is the first non-Cairns descendent to enter the company”s upper ranks, is helping inject new life into Cairns & Brother. With Boehm”s management expertise from years with companies like Xerox, McCutcheon says Cairns & Brother plans to storm competitively into the next century.

Cairns & Brother may be riding on the success of the Cairns Iris. Says Fire Engineering”s Manning: “The dollar signs of the firefighter equipment industry haven”t grown much in the past five to 10 years. Growth is in the high-tech area.”

While firefighters around the country are cheering the Cairns Iris, not everyone is snapping it up as quickly as would be expected. Why? The pricetag for one Iris is $25,000. “Any city would be hard-pressed to come up with that kind of money,” says Santora. “Tight budgets are forcing everybody to crunch numbers. I see it as an impossible hurdle.” Other criticisms of the Cairns Iris are that firefighters may dangerously lose sense of their surroundings while wearing the device, or that when a fire calls for the technology in a multi-departmental city, the one or two Irises may not be readily accessible. But the major roadblock remains the cost. Santora, who has recommended that New York City buy two Cairns Irises, says the final decision is “up to the powers-that-be.”

Cairns & Brother has been blanketing the worldwide firefighting scene putting on Cairns Iris demonstrations. With the help of GEC Marconi in Britain, which makes the thermal imaging components that go into the system, Cairns & Brother made the first prototype in 1994 and started producing the Cairns Iris in February. “There”s no doubt that it”s expensive technology,” admits Boehm. “But the question should be, ”Why does it cost as little as $25,000 when it saves victims and cuts down on firefighter injury and property damage?””

Columbus, Ga. was one of the first departments to get the Iris, and now cities up and down the east coast, including Philadelphia, have bought one or two units, often holding fund-raisers to pay for them. After watching the “Dateline NBC” report, Bobbi Waits and her partner, Nick Nardone, both recent retirees, were moved to organize a fund-raising campaign in their hometown of Westwood. “We”d like Westwood to be the first New Jersey town to have one or more of these helmets,” explains Waits. “It could be saving our lives and those of our children or grandchildren.” Waits and Nardone, who are awaiting approval of their plan by the mayor and town council, want to raise $25,000 or more by the end of 1996. Clifton has begun a similar fund-raising campaign.

Boehm and his Cairns & Brother colleagues say the Cairns Iris is leading the industry to the next level of firefighting. But the family business has no plans to succumb to the tekkie lifestyle and abandon its leather origins, which have seen it through five generations. Nor will high-tech advances cloud the credo that has guided firefighters for nearly two centuries. “The level of protection has gone up,” says Boehm. “But the mission has never changed: To preserve life and preserve property. We”ve just found a way to do that job better.” The Cairns Iris may do that and may also blaze a trail for Cairns & Brother toward a more profitable future.