A pair of protective pants, such as firefighter's pants or rescue provider's pants, has an upper portion, which when covers a lower region of a wearer's torso, and two leg portions, each of which when worn covers one of the wearer's legs. Each leg portion has an upper region, which extends downwardly from the upper portion, and a lower region, which extends upwardly from a lower end of such leg portion toward the upper region and which terminates not higher than where such leg portion when worn covers the wearer's knee. The pair of protective pants, at the lower region of each leg portion but not elsewhere, has an outer layer of puncture-resistant material.