Where i'm from we dont have hydrants, and we truck our water to the scene. Steam at times is more effective to knock down a fire instead of drowning it. Plus that ammount of water getting thrown in creates alot more water damage if the building is actually saved
Thats exactly what I'm saying. Pick the right tool for the job to get the most effective and efficient results with minimizing risk to your guys and damage to property.
Ted, I missed this when you posted it, but why do you think I became a truckie in the first place. When my engine supplied the truck company at the first double station to which I was assigned, it was in the old days and it took us FOUR of those tiny 2.5 inch lines to feed the quadmese to the turrent gun in the bucket. I noticed that the truckies took a little steel wool to a set of irons, refilled the can, and that was about it. I transferred across the floor as soon as the truck had an opening.
If LDH had existed 30 years ago, I might have stayed a hose-dragger for my entire career.
The often misunderstood value of the aerial device is it's versitility. An elevated stream used as pictured gives the FD many attack angles not availible using ground monitors, it allows for very quick deployment, and a large GPM master stream. Towers can place their bucket almost on the sidewalk in front of the building and angle their stream up into a cockloft area, move side to side all the while keeping their stream aimed at the body of fire. Our tower has the ability to move the gun vertically 140 degrees, horizontally 180 degrees besides the actual movement of the tower itself. Pretty good coverage in my mind. As Chief I would have no hesitation using the device as shown. Flyswatter or sledgehammer either way the fly dies...the sledge is a little more sure bet in my mind lol.
Permalink Reply by FETC on December 20, 2009 at 8:27pm
Defensive Operation, Towers are used to knock down large fire. There is an exposure next door. It is also a commercial occupancy and the fire load could be significant. What are we gonna save in a gas station with steam/ shit basically. The T/L provides protection and overhauls at the same time. Besides this is a single photo... it could have been going to beat the band before the Tower went into operation... Then again few minutes later when the cameraman can get close enough to stand the heat the fire is out. Another thought, the T/L could have been first due?
Ground lines??? You know us truckies will get a rash on our hands if we pick up an engine companies hose...
Yeah in the first photo, it would have easily been knocked down with hand lines. The second photo was a good situation to use the masterstream. But like you said, they are single photos; you dont get a good view of the whole scene.
Tom, In my old volly department in Tennessee, we used a tanker shuttle for most of our water supply, too. Here's an example of our Snorkel company at work on a body shop fire in the early 1980's.
Here's the engine that was supplying the snorkel's turret pipe.
Believe me, we needed the water - a 12-bay body shop fully involved, an illegal 800-gallon propane tank inside the shop, acetylene tanks and combustible paints everywhere, and 10 cars with their fuel involved. We flowed a 600 gpm turret pipe and numerous hand lines to get the main fire knocked.