Highrise packs

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Permalink Reply by George H. Potter on April 29, 2008 at 4:50pm

Hello over there,
Have any of you guys tried the new high flow / low pressure combination nozzles by Akron, Elkheart and a couple of other manufacturers? I have a Spanish made one that delivers approx. 220 gpm at 75 psi. on a 1 3/4 inch line. As I have seen in the literature, the USA made "guns" meet the same characteristics.

A typical Spanish intervention in a structural fire (residential or small business type activity) is a 1 inch line with an 80 gpm
combination nozzle at 100 psi. If the fire volune warrents more water, they will go to the 1 3/4 in. or even 2 3/4 in. lines. The major problems here are; reduced manning (4, 3 and even 2 FF crews, and substandard public water supply. However, building construction here tends to be more fire resistant than over there, cement and bricks, although the contents are quite similar.

Take care over there,

George Potter

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Permalink Reply by Bob Shovald on May 1, 2008 at 10:41am

George -
We tested the 150/50 nozzles and choose to place the Akron Assualt on our apparatus. We use a shut off with a 15/16" slug tip to make the combination a break-apart nozzle. We have had great response to the new nozzles. We flow 185 gpm from the ss and 165 gpm when using the combination tip. We were concerned about hose kinking with the low pessure, how ever we found that with the high gpm this hasn't been an issue. And for ss guys like myself I just twist the combination tip off at the beginning of the tour.
Bob

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Permalink Reply by Brian Gover on May 3, 2008 at 9:11am

we just got a pressure gauge. how do you recommend we protect it from getting broken?

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Permalink Reply by Nate DeMarse on May 3, 2008 at 9:18am

Brian,

We simply keep ours in the stand-pipe bag (simple plumbing type bag) and I have never really heard of one being broken. I suppose you could wrap a couple of inner tubes (helmet bands) around the gauge area, but it is one more thing that you will have to remove in an already intense situation.

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Permalink Reply by Howie Smith on May 23, 2008 at 9:47pm

Brian, how about finding a bad length of 2-1/2" or 3" hose and cutting a small section out. You could spray paint it red or something and tuck the gauge inside the hose?

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Permalink Reply by Art Zern on May 23, 2008 at 10:20pm

Mike,

Where did you find the "street" elbow/angle adapter with pressure gage. We have the angle adapters and have the pressure gages mounted in our wyes. I tried to find the elbows with gages, guess I didn't look in the right places. I have seen them but I began to think they may have been shop fabricated. Any help would be appreciated.

Art

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Permalink Reply by Art Zern on May 23, 2008 at 10:24pm

Several years ago while we still had combinations on our high-rise packs, a top floor fire in a 10 story office building proved the "debris" advantage to the smooth-bore. After a couple minutes of junk flowing, the combo nozzle clogged with debris. Shortly thereafter, we changed to smooth-bores.

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Permalink Reply by Gary Cochran on February 14, 2009 at 10:56am

TRYING TO CHANGE OUR DEPARTMENTS HIGHRISE PACK INTO USING THE CLEVELAND LOAD NO FLAKING OUT IS NECESSARY AND CAN BE QUICKLY PUT INTO ACTION

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Permalink Reply by Mike Walker on February 14, 2009 at 11:06am

We tried the Cleveland, I loved it, but watch out with light weight High rise hose, once the nozzle is opened the hose will tend to kink. Make sure your people stay with each bundle until it completely plays out.
GCOCHRAN said:

TRYING TO CHANGE OUR DEPARTMENTS HIGHRISE PACK INTO USING THE CLEVELAND LOAD NO FLAKING OUT IS NECESSARY AND CAN BE QUICKLY PUT INTO ACTION

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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on February 14, 2009 at 5:00pm

Dave? How did you present your idea to your FD? I am having the same problem at my FD's. One of them, will not use 2.5" line for high rise packs(we have 150 ft of 1.75" with a 1.25" smoothbore tip. and the other FD won't use 2.5" line or smoothbore nozzles. How do I sell them on the ideas of friction loss, lower operating pressures, PSI vs. GPM, and the true hazards of high rise firefighting. I presented a powerpoint on a high rise in our district and I used the 1 Meridian Plaze in Phila., PA as an example of lives lost and why, but it fell on death ears. I am not giving up. I know that it is for the betterment of the FD, the public, and the FF's but perhaps I should try a different angle. so, out of curiosity, what worked for you?Dave LeBlanc said:

We just changed our up. I lost the fight for 2 1/2, but won the smoothbore argument. I'll have to take what I can get. We have no true highrises, but have several standpiped buildings. Our tallest (4 stories) is on the Ocean, so the wind driven possibility concerns me.

We are using 150' of 1 3/4 with a 7/8" slug tip. The hose is in 2 bundles, 100' and 50'. We have a gated wye with 15' of 2 1/2" for the connection. We also have a small bag with wrenches, chocks, the fog tip from the break apart and soon to be added a rope (bleach bottle style) for hauling up more hose.

It isn't perfect, but we can flow 160GPM at 50PSI and 195GPM at 75PSI. (Assuming we can achieve that pressure.) We are going to field test the crap out of it over the next month or so. We also have it set up to use as a long lay line (Marinas and Long narrow driveways) and to extend off a 2 1/2" line. Since we rarely have incidents in our standpiped buildings, the thought was the more ways to use it, the more familiar we would all become.

I have a power point of the set up if you are interested. We used "the Bundles" method to pack it. Check it out on Youtube, just type in the bundles.

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