I have been with two volli houses and one used 1 1/2 and the one I am with now uses 1 3/4. Here is the discussion, do you fellow firefighters out there have a preference, and what does your house use?
We use 1 3/4 and 1 1/2 but our primary's are all 1 3/4. our biggest problem with 1 1/2 was that we had a hard time finding any that would still be somewhat flexible during the winter up here. 1 3/4 was easier to find in the kind that is still flexible in the winter during those 2am structure fires and the like.
We use 1 3/4 almost all of the time here. The only other line we have is a 2 1/2 and the only time we use that is if we have a structure fire or barn fire it rarely gets used otherwise. The 1 3/4 on the otherhand gets used for everything else. We do even use it for structure fires or second lines for a barn fire.
1 3/4 has become the norm for us our 1 1/2 has been phased out and we only carry it on our brush truck now and when those last few sections no longer pass testing they will be gone also.
Permalink Reply by FETC on February 23, 2009 at 10:22am
The new target GPM due to the higher BTU's of today's furnishings for a residential fire with a handline is 175GPM.
The answer to all of your questions is what can my line flow with the manpower available. Sorry but an inch and half is old school, out of date and needs to be placed on the brush truck...