{"id":79127,"date":"2026-08-24T08:50:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T08:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/79127\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T08:50:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T08:50:26","slug":"navy-veterans-experience-prompts-her-to-make-fire-resistant-underwear-for-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/79127\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy veteran’s experience prompts her to make fire-resistant underwear for women"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 13 years in the Royal Australian Navy, Emily Pyke realised if she encountered a fire her bra could catch alight beneath her protective uniform.<\/p>\n

“When we think about a commercial bra \u2026 they were never designed to be worn in these conditions,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Even though we’re wearing a protective layer on the outside, once that’s breached \u2026 a synthetic bra can actually melt under the outer protective wear.”<\/p>\n

When she looked around to other industries, she saw her experience mirrored by women working as firefighters, electricians, miners and construction workers.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Emily Pyke left the navy last year to pursue her vision of creating fire-resistant underwear for women in frontline services. (Supplied: Austrade)<\/p>\n

“I continued to see the same gap,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Women are wearing everyday commercial, synthetic, highly flammable products into these high-risk environments.”<\/p>\n

It was not just bras she thought about either, but her own and other women’s menstrual needs.<\/p>\n

“We’re sometimes wearing [uniforms] for many, many hours,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Think about Border Force, conducting boardings. They’re on another vessel away from their main platform.<\/p>\n

“There’s really nowhere to go to the bathroom when you’re thinking about a woman who needs to change.”<\/p>\n

These realisations ignited a passion in Ms Pyke that led her to leave the navy a year ago and pursue her mission of making women on the frontlines safer.<\/p>\n

\"woman<\/p>\n

The Irish and UK defence forces have also been trialling the fire-resistant underwear. (Supplied: Austrade)<\/p>\n

“As someone who was the user for 13 years, I never got asked what could be done better to make me more comfortable,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The fit, feel and function of something can be life-changing to a woman in a high-risk role that’s physically demanding.”The tech behind the idea<\/p>\n

Ms Pyke started developing fabrics with a Sydney manufacturer that avoided highly flammable fibres like polyester and nylon.<\/p>\n

What they achieved was a modacrylic fabric blended with other materials that was certified not to drip or melt when exposed to fire.<\/p>\n

“Anything will burn at a high enough radiant heat or fire level,” she said.<\/p>\n

“But when it catches on fire, it doesn’t melt to your skin, and there’s a point where it can self-extinguish if it’s a smaller flame that it’s been exposed to.”<\/p>\n

The company has also been working to remove parts of a typically made bra that could be hazardous in fire environments.<\/p>\n

“The wire, the foam, the excess elastic, the metal clips on the straps, because a lot of those are pressure points as well,” Ms Pyke said.<\/p>\n

An engineer at the University of NSW, Imrana Kabir has been developing and testing the garments with Ms Pyke.<\/p>\n

The senior lecturer specialises in fire retardant and defence-related materials, and said the technical underwear was filling a critical gap in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline women.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Imrana Kabir in the University of New South Wales testing lab with the fire-resistant garments. (Supplied: Imrana Kabir)<\/p>\n

“Even if you wear [outer] fire garments, the fire can actually affect your inner part of the body as well,” Dr Kabir said.<\/p>\n

“You can get bruises and your skin can get affected.<\/p>\n

“What we are developing is for women’s safety, so they are protected from beneath, rather than getting blisters and stuff.”<\/p>\n

The company has been granted $200,000 from the NSW government to develop a second iteration of the fire-safe period undies and bras.<\/p>\n

Dr Kabir said those garments would be tested by putting the underwear on a mannequin and putting fire resistant PPE over the top.<\/p>\n

“We will heat up the area with fire, and then [flames] will eject from the fire placement and it will light up in fire the overcoat,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We don’t know the result yet but most probably the bra and undergarment won’t be burned.”<\/p>\n

Dr Kabir said her family has a defence background, which made the project profoundly personal.<\/p>\n

\"woman<\/p>\n

Imrana Kabir says a mannequin will be dressed in the underwear and PPE before being exposed to fire. (Supplied: Imrana Kabir)<\/p>\n

“Working on this especially [for] people who are risking their lives to save lives, and I am contributing to some of it, means a big deal to me.”Trial with firefighters and defence force personnel<\/p>\n

The company tested its first versions of the fire-safe underwear with firefighters in Australia, and with Irish and UK defence forces.<\/p>\n

It is now about to be sent to fire services in Western Australia and Victoria.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

The second generation of the fire safe period brief and bras are being developed after a $200,000 grant from the NSW government. (Supplied: Austrade)<\/p>\n

Ms Pyke said she was also discussing trialling the garments with mines and construction companies.<\/p>\n

“We’ve really got to focus on getting these products right so that we start to recruit more women into these roles [and] retain more women,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s nice to actually turn up to work and know that your uniform will fit, your safety equipment will fit, and you can comfortably and safely do your job.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 13 years in the Royal Australian Navy, Emily Pyke realised if she encountered a fire her bra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,5735,1612,844,120853,120855,120854,5091,120858,14798,120856,120857],"class_list":["post-79127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-defence","tag-emergency-services","tag-fire","tag-fire-resistant-bras","tag-fire-resistant-period-undies","tag-fire-resistant-undies","tag-firefighters","tag-front-line-women","tag-navy","tag-period-underwear","tag-undatech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}