The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
Water Structure Fires
ok this might be duh question for some of ya'll out there. How do you know or determine how much water you have used out a hydrant on a structure fire? In Tennessee we are suppose to be keeping up with the amounts of water used. I have tried a search on the net and no results. The only thing I have been able to come up with is just guessing. I know there is no way to get an accurate amount but how can I get a ball park figure.
Thanks for any enlightning help.
Thanks for any enlightning help.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Michael on
-
If you can figure up the flow on your nozzle's on the fire scene that will give you some head way. We use SM30 on our hand lines so that will give 300gpm so we figure up how many min. we used the nozzle and we have some ideal how much water we used.
-
Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
-
Will a flow meter connected impede the attack? Perhaps fitting one between the hydrant and the line...
A quick google comes up with this one for example http://www.buygpi.com/firehydrantflowmeter.aspx
-
Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
-
Flow meters are a good idea but realistically not practical. Hooking up a line takes enough time without the added hardware. The hardware could be damaged easily (and usually is)
The mathematical formulation for water minus friction loss is a little complex but do-able. If your local water department is so worried about the water flow, tell them to install meters underground.
-
Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
-
Tell them to keep track of it.....You only use enough to put the fire out....at least thats the way I see it....But then again I can be a bit of an agitator.....LOL Paul
-
Permalink Reply by anne potter on
-
I agree with Paul. Are you kidding you are putting out a fire and they want you to keep track... Naw I don't think so... Some of the townships I live near is by fort Drum and I know every so often we help ourselfs to a fill up when we need one... after you know a fire... I would say it's their problem you have enough to worry about...
-
-
I thought I heard somewhere that the insurance companies are now starting to question the amount of water being used and the damage caused, etc by the water...????
-
-
I believe anything to get out of paying... WORLD IS GOING DOWN IN A BIG SH-T BAG.. Next thing you know us as fire depts. Will be getting sued by the land owner for dumb stuff like that statement.. which I sooo believe is to be probally true..
-
Permalink Reply by Rob Fritsche on
-
In MO we have to report to the company that supplies the water our estimate on how much was used, both on fires and for training. The resson is to accoamount for the water in the system. The company knows how much water it put into the system. Meters at the treatment plant or at the connection where it buys the water from another system. It also knows how much water is paid for by customers, the meters at each user's house or business. If they put in more water than customers paid for, it may indicate a leak in the system. By using the amount of water the FD uses it helps decrease the loss amout. A leak would need to be found and fixed to stop the loss and prevent the water from being contaiminated.
On most fires I bet you use the water from the onboard tank without needing to hook to a hydrant. If so, then it is simple. Look at the tank level after the call. A 1000 gal tank that is 3/4 full used 250 gals. If a water shuttle is used, how many times did the tankers fill and how many gals does each tanker hold? The hard ones are the fires that are extended and hooked to a hydrant. Then the gpm flow rate of the nozzle muliplied by the minutes of flow.
-
-
Might work in a perfect world...BUT what we face is a large number or rural fires....we use a "tanker task force" That is a lot of mutual aid tankers....either we carry water or we don't have any....We have departments that have tankers that vary in size from 2000gallons all the way up to 7000gallons....Hate to be the devils advocate here but we have enough going on at a firescene without having to count tankers and the amounts of water....yes, might have water damage....but it is still better than the damage that the fire may cause.....sort of like the bumper sticker I saw......."Fire damage $25,000 dollars...FireDepartment damage $50,000.......OOPS.....!!!" Paul
-
Permalink Reply by Oldman on
-
Ya gotta love Google. The problem I see with that device is it is only in 3", which would probably be ok for some. Won't work too well with the 5" supply we use.
-
-
A ball park figure should suffice. The water supplier can get a more accurate amount simply by checking their meter readings for how much they are pumping. We do this quite often in my area on larger fires where we are getting water from a neighboring municipality. Because we utilize as Paul put it a "Tanker Task Force" (good one btw Paul), we know how much each tanker holds, and how many trips each makes in the shuttle. We can get pretty close.
I have one school in our district which has their own water supply system which we use to refill after smaller fires, and I submit a monthly total of how much water we get from them. They then subtract that amount as "fire department usage" from the total usage they report to the Subsidence District. This way it doesn't count against them for using more water than their permit allows.
-
Permalink Reply by George on
-
This wouldnt be with using tankers. It would straight out the hydrants. City is not going to install meters at each hydrant. And if I get a rough figure it will be good enough. Tennessee has some kind of law where water has to kept up now, not sure of all the whys of it. Small fires are no problem because if we dont hook to a hydrant we do just guess how much we used out the tank. I am trying to figure a structure fire. We had one the other day and used four 1 3/4 lines. We were on the scene for three hours and would say hour and half water was flowing but not full during all that time.
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
