Taking the hydrant

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jeff Schwering on November 25, 2008 at 2:54pm

Bob, my dept is very similar in catching a plug to yours. The only real difference we carry hydrant bag, that is attached to the 5 inch line. We run 2 engines out of the same house, communication between officers dictates what company lays in, normally the 2nd due engine.

Permalink Reply by Ed Watters on December 3, 2008 at 4:08am

All LAFD Engine Companies carry a minimum of 750' of 4" hose and are connected to a 4 Way Valve which allows a second engine company to connect to the same hydrant as the first Engine and increase the volume and pressure without interrupting the flow of water to the first engine. This is very useful for Highrise fires, Large Commercials, and heavy streams. We forward lay 99% of the time. The hydrant member is left at the hydrant. He/She has a hydrant spanner, adjustable hydrant spanner and a anti-theft hydrant spanner (if these caps are in your first-in). If the Engine is close to a Hydrant we will use a 12' or 25' 4" Bypass to connect to the hydrant. All of our Firefighting companies have street maps showing the hydrant locations, hydrant type and main sizes. These maps prevent companies from laying from a corner hydrant when their are mid-block hydrants or closer hydrants on the street. We have 100 Engine Companies, 53 Companies are Single Engines and 47 are housed with Truck Companies. The 47 double houses have a 2nd fully equipped Engine Company that is married with the Truck Company which is known as a Light Force. That second Engine is staffed with only and Engineer- if his engine is not needed at the fire he is the 6th man on the truck. These double houses are known as TaskForce Houses. If the lightforce responses alone the Insideman from the truck rides on the 2nd Engine, which gives that Engine a firefighter to lay the line. This configuration allows the Truck Companies the ability to fight fire. The Trucks primary responsibility is truckwork, but can go both ways. When a structure fire is reported the two piece engines companies work to together. Some companies use slings or wrap the hydrant ( if the 2 piece gets seperated), other companies will break the 4 way and stub the duals of the 2nd engine, I've seen the 2nd Engine backdown the street and lay reverse, and I've seen the engines approach from different directions. It is Incident Driven. Our light force Engines are fully Staffed during Major Emergencies in the City, giving us 149 Engine Companies. We have two truck houses that have the lightforce configuration. These are the 48 and 49th trucks. Our operation is different from most department throughout the country and I hope the Taskforce and Lightforce explanation gives you some insight into our operation.

Permalink Reply by Jimmy Grostick on December 11, 2008 at 2:41am

Bob Shovald said:

Has anyone had any safety issues "wrapping" the hydrant with the hose?
Bob

Bob, we have 1400' of 4", which makes for a really tight hosebed.. Standard practice is to wrap the plug...IF we are in metro... most of our area is rural, with really long lays...(last one on Thanksgiving required over 2500' just to reach the house) Of those we have the layout guy grab the 4" (folded over with a hose strap like others here) and pulls of about 35' or so, and "heel" the line, and send off the engine...

The FF makes a fold in the line of about 18", then grasps it so that if there were something that did hang up, he could release it (more like it would get jerked out of his hands!)

The 25-35' of extra is so that when the tender pulls up, they have enough slack to tie in where they need to, without having to pull out thier pony section. With different mutual aid departments coming, each has their own supply hookup needs, hence the slack line.

We used to have the old "milk crate" for a hydrant box..(yeah, I know, ghetto)....I went down to Home Dump and picked up one of those black Husky Tool Bags (Extra Large) and it works GREAT..(Steamer fittings, gate valve, spanners, wrench) I think that they are going to swap all of the engines over to this now....

Worries: Flipped couplings under the hose cover, mis "stacked" couplings (not in sequential order), and like Ray said about the angle if we wrap a plug and getting it stuck under either a vehicle or other yard obstruction...

Permalink Reply by Bob Shovald on December 12, 2008 at 3:40pm

Jimmy -
That is interesting, we just did the same thing except we use the y Tool bag for our standpipe kit. Works great doesn't it? Also a milk crate was the source of the idea for our hydrant box. We wanted something that would drain water away from the tools and so it won't rot out the bag, the crate worked great. We took it a step further and made an aluminum box. The carrying handle is the hydrant wrench held in place with a hitch pin. We have custom built the boxes to fit each engine to maximize the space however they are all very simular in size. The bottom of the box has open corners to allow water to drain off and we placed "turtle tile" in the bottom to keep the tools dry.
Bob

Permalink Reply by Brad Smith on April 9, 2009 at 10:45pm

Ed Watters said:

All LAFD Engine Companies carry a minimum of 750' of 4" hose and are connected to a 4 Way Valve which allows a second engine company to connect to the same hydrant as the first Engine and increase the volume and pressure without interrupting the flow of water to the first engine. This is very useful for Highrise fires, Large Commercials, and heavy streams. We forward lay 99% of the time. The hydrant member is left at the hydrant. He/She has a hydrant spanner, adjustable hydrant spanner and a anti-theft hydrant spanner (if these caps are in your first-in). If the Engine is close to a Hydrant we will use a 12' or 25' 4" Bypass to connect to the hydrant. All of our Firefighting companies have street maps showing the hydrant locations, hydrant type and main sizes. These maps prevent companies from laying from a corner hydrant when their are mid-block hydrants or closer hydrants on the street. We have 100 Engine Companies, 53 Companies are Single Engines and 47 are housed with Truck Companies. The 47 double houses have a 2nd fully equipped Engine Company that is married with the Truck Company which is known as a Light Force. That second Engine is staffed with only and Engineer- if his engine is not needed at the fire he is the 6th man on the truck. These double houses are known as TaskForce Houses. If the lightforce responses alone the Insideman from the truck rides on the 2nd Engine, which gives that Engine a firefighter to lay the line. This configuration allows the Truck Companies the ability to fight fire. The Trucks primary responsibility is truckwork, but can go both ways. When a structure fire is reported the two piece engines companies work to together. Some companies use slings or wrap the hydrant ( if the 2 piece gets seperated), other companies will break the 4 way and stub the duals of the 2nd engine, I've seen the 2nd Engine backdown the street and lay reverse, and I've seen the engines approach from different directions. It is Incident Driven. Our light force Engines are fully Staffed during Major Emergencies in the City, giving us 149 Engine Companies. We have two truck houses that have the lightforce configuration. These are the 48 and 49th trucks. Our operation is different from most department throughout the country and I hope the Taskforce and Lightforce explanation gives you some insight into our operation.

Ed,

We use the four way valve as well. I have always understood that it's purpose is to allow a second engine company to basically eliminate the friction loss (in the four inch hose) between the plug and the engine at the scene. My question is, can/do you also have the ability to increase the volume being sent to that engine at the scene?

Thanks,
Brad

Permalink Reply by Jeff Buechel on April 11, 2009 at 11:10am

We pull to the hydrant, and if it is near the fire building, we use the 30' section of 5' off the officer side. If it will be a long lay, then we pull the 5' LDH with stortz, and lay in. Our hydrant box is a rubbermaid tote. We hook the hydrant with the steamer connection, and a gate valve on one 2 1/2 outlet, and a wye on the other 2 1/2. If we will only use the steamer connection, it still gets the appliances hooked anyway. Our new quint will be getting a milk crate for it's hydrant box. The rubbermaid won't fit in the compartment. We don't use straps, or anything to secure the LDH to the hydrant as the engine/quint lays in. I brought it up at an officers meeting, and was told, figure it out and get back to us. (Sometimes it is nice to have senior officers that have no problem with change as long as they aren't the ones who have to implement it.)

Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on October 22, 2009 at 7:41pm

We use 4" supply line with a stortz to standard hydrant thread adapter. We also place a 2.5" gate valve on one of the hydrants smaller discharges. We also carry hydrant bags that contain a hydrant wrench, a pipe wrench, 2 spanner wrenches, a 2.5" gate valve, and a stortz to standard hydrant thread adapter.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page