Fog or Smooth Bore Nozzles

What does your dept use on the initial attack inside a structure fire? Fog or Smooth Bore. Lets hear the pros and cons and your preference

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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on November 15, 2008 at 11:39am

You are correct Trainer, it was a torch job. We have the heavy attack vindicators and they throw out quite a bit of water.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on November 15, 2008 at 11:40am

Tradition, Lou... it all comes down to tradition.

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Permalink Reply by Chris on November 16, 2008 at 9:04pm

Here is the issue. The FA uses hay and pallets, and if that is the only thing you have to base your fire attack knowledge on, be careful out there. I have been very lucky in my career to have a vast amount of time on the knob with my 2 departments, both at real incidents and aquired structures. I have run and facillited over 20 aquired structure burns of various sizes and fuel loading (probably to manys dismay) and have had the opportuinty to test the 2 types of nozzles and there uses heavily. Actually the first 2 fires of each aquired structure is a nozlle demonstration for the newer members and it has been one of the most valuable tools I have done as the training officer.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on November 16, 2008 at 9:12pm

We don't have any problem getting the knock with combination fog nozzles, so hydraulic ventilation is frequently an issue where I work.

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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on November 17, 2008 at 5:43am

Each piece at my full time FD has a SB and a fog nozzle available for attack. I prefer the SB all the way. Less moving parts, better reach, deeper penetration, less psi, maneuverability, etc...Now I know the fog heads will say,"well, what about hydraulic ventilation?" I agree, hydraulic ventilation with a fog is very nice, but I would rather put water on the fire than out of the window. Fog nozzles do have their applications(AFFF, hydraulic ventilation, car fires, etc...) but me and my crew will pull a SB each and every time. At my part time FD, we just got the combination fog/SB abortions. I am truck guy, so perhaps I am not as educated in the issue as my engine counterparts, but I have compared the nozzles side by side and the SB/fog combo nozzles do not have the same reach s a SB and even the conventional fog nozzle beats it out with adjustablility of the stream and gpm. We all know, GPM vs BTU is what kills fire.