A firefighter's helmet having improved heat resistance and protective qualities while being also relatively light in weight having a protective outer shell composed of at least one layer of a fabric of a mixture of polybenzimidazole and high modulus aramid materials and a complementary layer of a very fine glass cloth adjacent at least one side of the polybenzimidazole-aramid layer, impregnated with and molded in a desired shape within a polyester resin material containing a small percentage of a coupling agent. The outer shell may also consist of additional layers of fibrous reinforcing materials molded within the resin material.