The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
Letter to the Editor: Creative hoseloads make long stretches easier
Letter to the Editor: Creative hoseloads make long stretches easier
By Scott Arthur EMT-P
Greg Jakubowski’s article in the July issue of FireRescue magazine touched on some hose evolutions that we have used very successfully for a number of years here in Snowmass Village.
We have a large number of homes with significant set backs or difficult terrain around the house that would take a lot of hose to stretch around as well as many condo and hotel buildings with long sidewalks to get to entrances. We use 5” for our supply line and keep a bed of 700’ of 3” hose for use in these long stretches. But we load the hose differently than most departments in order to make it easier for the stretch with minimum personnel.
Our 3” bed is loaded in two 350’ stacks side by side with the male ends on the top of each stack, basically backwards from how most firefighters are taught. The female of the first stack is started in the back of the bed but the female of the second stack is started at the front of the bed with a little extra hose to let it hang out of the bed. Thus when the two stacks are complete you can attach the female of the second stack to the male of the first stack. If you leave them coupled you have one 700’ length of hose coming off male first (no need to worry about forgetting the adaptors) to use as what we call a “portable standpipe” allowing you to stretch a large flow line to the door of the building. Then we attach our apartment pack (100’ of 1 ¾” hose and a gated wye) for the attack. All our 1 ¾” pre-connects are a modified minuteman load that has the whole load on your shoulder attached to the apparatus with a short pony hose (4-6’ long). Thus, a single firefighter can grab a second pre-connect off the engine, have the engineer easily disconnect it from the pony and take it to the gated wye for a back-up or second attack line.
If you disconnect the male/female coupling between the two stacks you now have two 350’ sections of hose, again with male ends, to go directly to an FDC (which many of our hotels and condos have), again without worrying about adaptors. In the very rare circumstance that we would need to use the 3” hose for a supply line we put an extra double female on the first male end (which is spun off and dropped when not being used for the “portable standpipe” or connecting to the FDC) and preset our 2 ½” inlet on the pump panel with a double male. We have never needed to use the lay this way but it allows the option without having to worry about forgetting the adapters in a seldom used evolution as they are preset.
Following are some photos:
Top left: The double female attached to the male end. Top right: The double male preset on the engineer’s panel for use as a supply line.
Hope this can be helpful to other departments with reduced staffing and large buildings.
Scott Arthur EMT-P
Captain/Medical Coordinator
Snowmass-Wildcat Fire Protection District
Snowmass Village, CO
By Scott Arthur EMT-P
Greg Jakubowski’s article in the July issue of FireRescue magazine touched on some hose evolutions that we have used very successfully for a number of years here in Snowmass Village.
We have a large number of homes with significant set backs or difficult terrain around the house that would take a lot of hose to stretch around as well as many condo and hotel buildings with long sidewalks to get to entrances. We use 5” for our supply line and keep a bed of 700’ of 3” hose for use in these long stretches. But we load the hose differently than most departments in order to make it easier for the stretch with minimum personnel.
Our 3” bed is loaded in two 350’ stacks side by side with the male ends on the top of each stack, basically backwards from how most firefighters are taught. The female of the first stack is started in the back of the bed but the female of the second stack is started at the front of the bed with a little extra hose to let it hang out of the bed. Thus when the two stacks are complete you can attach the female of the second stack to the male of the first stack. If you leave them coupled you have one 700’ length of hose coming off male first (no need to worry about forgetting the adaptors) to use as what we call a “portable standpipe” allowing you to stretch a large flow line to the door of the building. Then we attach our apartment pack (100’ of 1 ¾” hose and a gated wye) for the attack. All our 1 ¾” pre-connects are a modified minuteman load that has the whole load on your shoulder attached to the apparatus with a short pony hose (4-6’ long). Thus, a single firefighter can grab a second pre-connect off the engine, have the engineer easily disconnect it from the pony and take it to the gated wye for a back-up or second attack line.
If you disconnect the male/female coupling between the two stacks you now have two 350’ sections of hose, again with male ends, to go directly to an FDC (which many of our hotels and condos have), again without worrying about adaptors. In the very rare circumstance that we would need to use the 3” hose for a supply line we put an extra double female on the first male end (which is spun off and dropped when not being used for the “portable standpipe” or connecting to the FDC) and preset our 2 ½” inlet on the pump panel with a double male. We have never needed to use the lay this way but it allows the option without having to worry about forgetting the adapters in a seldom used evolution as they are preset.
Following are some photos:
Hope this can be helpful to other departments with reduced staffing and large buildings.
Scott Arthur EMT-P
Captain/Medical Coordinator
Snowmass-Wildcat Fire Protection District
Snowmass Village, CO
Add a Comment
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
You need to be a member of My Firefighter Nation to add comments!
Join My Firefighter Nation