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Injured during hose testing
Seen this news report on the internet:
Friday, September 11, 2009 - Two Franklin Township firefighters were hurt during a hose testing exercise Thursday morning. A 50 foot section of fire hose broke when the water pressure reached 300 pounds per square inch. The metal coupling from that section of hose hit 29-year-old firefighter Sean Schembra in the head. Another firefighter, Justin Goff, suffered a knee injury.
Hose testing is dangerous, and I have seen hose failures in the past. My question is does anyone have additional information on the events that lead to these injuries from a catastrophic coupling failure?
Was the hose new? initial test? How many lengths? Were they testing hose from a fire apparatus pump source or using a commercial hose tester? Was the hose age or date of manufacturing misread and tested at a greater pressure than what the NFPA or the manufacturer designed?
Announcing an injury without additional information, important information to reduce the chances of this happening again is terrible.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - Two Franklin Township firefighters were hurt during a hose testing exercise Thursday morning. A 50 foot section of fire hose broke when the water pressure reached 300 pounds per square inch. The metal coupling from that section of hose hit 29-year-old firefighter Sean Schembra in the head. Another firefighter, Justin Goff, suffered a knee injury.
Hose testing is dangerous, and I have seen hose failures in the past. My question is does anyone have additional information on the events that lead to these injuries from a catastrophic coupling failure?
Was the hose new? initial test? How many lengths? Were they testing hose from a fire apparatus pump source or using a commercial hose tester? Was the hose age or date of manufacturing misread and tested at a greater pressure than what the NFPA or the manufacturer designed?
Announcing an injury without additional information, important information to reduce the chances of this happening again is terrible.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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Good questions. I also recall the article and didn't see such details given. I don't recall if it said what kind of PPE the guys were wearing either. While hose testing can be mundane and boring, PPE does matter, it is easy to get complacent.
This past year we had two lengths of hose fail, it could have been that all the air wasn't fully bled out, or just the hose. (both lenghts were older) Luckily no one was standing next to them when they did fail. I agree though, some more information would be beneficial to all.
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Permalink Reply by Rusty Mancini on
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We test hose every year with the pump.I make sure all personnel have their helmet and gloves on but I'm re thinking about turn outs as well, after this incident. I should of already done it.About six years ago I was standing near one of the discharge lines at the pumper when a hose burst there,the hose whipped around and caught me in the gut.It knocked me back about 10 to 12 feet.Lucky for me it only not the air out of me.I read several years back a firefighter was struck in the head with a coupling and he lost his life( no helmet on ). I was wondering about their PSI 300? We make sure that everyone is well away from any hose that is being tested.I have a safety officer in place as well, to keep an eye out!
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Commercial hose tester.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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Chief,
We had an incident years back with an old department who used the pump. The problem is the pump has alot pressure and GPM's behind it, at the moment it fails as you know, causes one hell of a whip, which if the pump is unattended, is a run-away loose hose.
We use a commercial tester now and we wrap both ends (at the tester) and the other end, (end cap) with tubular webbing and a beaner in case it fails when you are standing over inspecting the coupling/hose connection. The tester has no source behind it, so you have a minor whip but especially minimal if the webbing is wrapped around all 6 lengths of hose.
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FETC , that's great information that you provided.I'll be looking into buying a com.tester it does seem a lot safer.How many ft. of hose are you testing on each outlet at a time? The above article stated that a 50 ft. section at 300? That seems very dangerous.
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Chief,
I have tested hose as part of my training - consultation business in the past. The max you can test to meet NFPA is 300' per discharge on comm unit. My unit has 6 discharges so I can set up 1500' of supply line per test.
The manufacturers also have different PSI for max test, operating and fire service tests. So identification of the manufacturer specs is very important. You can see mixing different hose and diameters on the same test can also be a critical factor when a catastrophic event happens.
The other consideration is checking out NFPA 1962 for recommended PSI in relation to the hose's date of manufacturing. (age) has different PSI as well.
If you lay out your entire supply line, lets say on at the elementary school parking lot and test it from a single discharge port from the pump, it technically doesn't meet the NFPA 1962 standard for hose testing.
Bill
www.fetcservices.com
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Thanks FETC, I respect your knowledge on this subject.It's seems that you can test a lot more hose faster and safer.I need to pay more attention to some of the info. you provided.Once again thank you!
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Permalink Reply by Loyd Dittfurth on
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OUCH god bless them and there familys
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Permalink Reply by Keri on
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We just finished our annual hose testing yesterday. We use a commerical tester for our 1 3/4" and 2 1/2" hose, so that goes pretty fast. But the comm tester takes a really long time to get our 5" upto testing pressure, so we test that off the pump. We block off the road and all our guys have on helmets. Also there is a park across the street and since we do our testing in the street, we make should no one in the park gets too close. In addition, when testing off the pump we have a reduced risk of injury when using engine 1 becuase the pump panel is located on a platform between the cab and hose bed and the 5" connects down on the sides, so the pump operater doesn't have to be near the hose and can be in a position where they can see the hose that is being tested and be able to immediately shut off the pump. When we tested a couple of sections of 1 3/4" of the pump of engine 2 (the comm tester was unavailable at the time) a couple of weeks ago, we attached a hose strap to the hose and engine (which has a side pump panel) to control the hose if it failed.
Yesterday when testing 5" off the pump on engine 1, we had a 100' section fail just before it reached pressure, the ff on the pump immediately shut everything off, we disconnected that section of hose and continued.
Our officers are constantly reminding us while were are testing to be paying attention, especially when doing the 5". We haven't had any problems or injuries at our dept but the potential is there.
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Longest week ever.....Testing hose for an aircraft carrier.
Just thought I'd share my pain on hose testing. I was on the commissioning crew for the USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75) and one of our jobs one day was to test all the firehose on the ship. Typically this is broken down by departments, but since this was the commissioning we had the testers on the pier and had to do all the initial tests. Let alone the thousands of feet of 1 1/2" hose for the the "fire stations" throughout the ship, there were thousands of feet of non-collapsable 1 1/2" hose. We had 50' up to 250' hose reels for firefighting in the main spaces of the ship and the flight deck to hangar bay. That was a serious pain in the ass dragging that stuff down to the pier to test.
Definately made for some very long days...but if thinking the wait for 5" LDH takes forever, I would rather test 5" any day over doing that initial tsting on a damn carrier.
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