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Spaghetti
You are an engine company, not an Italian restaurant.
Despite what hoseload you choose to use, how you configure your hosebed and the number of members arriving as an engine company there is no excuse for spaghetti. It is even made worse when the engine is nosed in or "beached". Your 150' or 200' hoseline is a bundle of kinks at the driver's feet when after positioning on the front yard you may only need two or three lengths at the most. The video below is an example, one of many departments that has positioned poorly and did not stretch the hoseline but grabbed the nozzle and ran for the door.
Being a disciplined and proficient engine company means not simply estimating what hoseline to pull, but knowing how, being able to break it down into fewer lengths if needed. It means that all members act as a company, making sure the first hoseline is free of kinks and properly charged before going to work.
Remember, as the first line goes, so goes the fire. What you may think was a successful knock may just be dumb luck on your part. Do you want to make that the foundation of your engine company?
Bill Carey is the daily news and blog manager for Elsevier Public Safety (FireRescue Magazine/Firefighter Nation, JEMS and LawOfficer sites.) Bill also manages the FireEMSBlogs.com network and is a former volunteer lieutenant with the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department in Prince George's County, Maryland.
Read more of Backstep Firefighter and others at FireEMSBlogs.com
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bob Callahan on
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Training, training, training.
I see it all the time in both my combo and volunteer department.
1) Teach them to do a sizeup and estimate how much hose they will need. Empower them to take that 200' pre-connect and only pull off 100' or 150', or break it, and connect it to the pump or empower them to take the first 200' pre-connect and add another 100' from the second for that commercial fire if that is waht their size-up indicates.
2) Teach the members to take the hose off in layers, with the first layer going on thier shoulder and being dropped 20-30' from the door, and then stretched out on the lawn in a position where there is line close to the door that can be feed inside. Teach the members that this is the nozzleman's responsibility.
3) Teach the members that the second man on the line is the one responsible for flaking the hose off the truck and making sure that it is not in a pile before he joins the nozzleman at the door.
4) Teach the members that the hose must be properly stretched before they need to worry about making an attack. teach them that this must be done right, every time. Train on it.
5) If space permist, carry several legnths of preconnected, or at least, pre-loaded hose on the apparatus. train your members that there are multiple leghths of pre-loaded hose on the trucks for a reason.
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