Where firefighters come to talk training

Taking the hydrant

I am interested in finding out how other departments take thier hydrants.
We use 5" hose with stroz connections. We fold the end of the hose back on its self and place a webbing strap with a spring loaded carabiner around a 5"stroz to 4 1/2" NH adapter placed on the end of the load. The idea is to pull the load using the strap. Then place the strap around the hydrant. The strap secures the hose to the hydrant as the engineer drives away. The carabiner releases the strap. We also use a hydrant box made of aluminum the hydrant wrench serves as the carrying handle. The box contains all the needed components and adapters to connect the hydrant. What is your dept. policy?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ray on November 1, 2008 at 8:01pm

We pull up close to the hydrant and pull off a 35' length of 5" supply hose. This gets hooked up to the 4 1/2" outlet. The remaining 2 1/2" outlet has a single gate put on it and 3 1/2" hose is used to increase the hydrants available flow.

Permalink Reply by Wayne Benner Jr on November 2, 2008 at 10:31am

We use a 4" stortz if the Hydrant has that port and if not we use the 2 1/2 port. by using a 4 - 2 1/2 reducer. In most cases the 2nd in Engine is getting the Hydrant with a forward lay. Some time the I/C uses the ladder to catch the plug. The load has a Hydrant Kit bag with webbing looped around the end, Firefighter takes the 2 to the hydrant and away the engine goes. The 1st in Engine only grabs the plug if its with in 50ft the building, when this is the case a Volunteer who arrived in his/her POV runs the 4" back to the hydrant.

Permalink Reply by Bob Shovald on November 2, 2008 at 12:08pm

Anybody use a hydrant valve? If so how do you utilize it? Also does anyone wrap the supply hose around the plug? If so what are your thoughts on that procedure.

Permalink Reply by Bob Shovald on November 2, 2008 at 12:48pm

Hi Ray -
IS FDNY using LDH? I thought you were all 3 1/2".

Permalink Reply by Erich Roden on November 2, 2008 at 6:54pm

And the Fire Buff filming even narrates it....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTkq9QgWLAE

Permalink Reply by Wayne Benner Jr on November 2, 2008 at 8:42pm

Sweet video and great job by the Engineer for doing that in a quick matter. I see the MFD uses the 2 1/2 as their primary hydrant hose. We use the HI-VOL 4" and playing with that big boy is a pain..

Canadian Kid gives 2 thumbs up :L)

Permalink Reply by Erich Roden on November 2, 2008 at 10:37pm

Wayne,
Hope all is well up in Canada, eh? The hose coming off the back of the Engine in the video is actually 3" hose and both are connected to discharge outlets. Usually, only one line needs to be charged. If there are a couple of rooms or more going, then the second 3" is charged. That gives the supplied Engine 1000 gpm.

Permalink Reply by Ray on November 3, 2008 at 11:56am

We are. Every engine has 35' of 5" as the primary hydrant supply line.

Permalink Reply by Jim Miller on November 4, 2008 at 5:24pm

We use 5" also, but we still wrap hte hydrant. We have had the commercial straps to break before in the event of a hose bed hang up. We have several quint companies that have complicated hose beds. This compromises the water supply when the hose is going down the street behind the engine. We ball valve another outlet in case of needing additional supply and all of our tools are in a hydrant bag seperate from the hose.

Permalink Reply by John Dantuono on November 5, 2008 at 10:21pm

Hey Bob, our FD uses 4" supply with Storz fittings on all our engines (100' lengths). If we need to lay in the person who is picking the plug grabs the hygrant bag along with the supply line. He then wraps the plug with the hose and signals the engine to start laying in. After about a length has been payed out the hydrant person then unwraps the plug makes the necessary connections with the proper fittings or adapters (we have mutiple thread concerns depending where in our district the alarm is) and starts water. If he is an experienced person he can cheat and start water slowly before it is called for, again I wouldn't recommend a member with a little experience to do this.
Also the chauffer, if he is on the ball, will start water to the hand lines from the booster tank to start supression, then switch to hydrant water when that has been established. Again this would be for someone who has more than a few runs under his belt.
Also if the hydrant has a steamer fitting we will establish the water supply from that point and then afix a 21/2" gate valve from one of the other butts in case another line is needed to augment the first.

Permalink Reply by Bob Shovald on November 6, 2008 at 1:08pm

What do your engines lay in with?
Bob

Permalink Reply by John Dantuono on November 8, 2008 at 4:27pm

Bob, our engines are equipped with 1200' of 4" LDH for water supply, each length is 100 feet. We also have short jumpers, again 4" LDH, that we use to establish a water supply if a hydrant is in close proximity to the engine at where we are working.
Hope this answers your question.

‹ Previous
1
2
3
Next ›

RSS

Welcome to
Fire Engineering Training Community

Sign Up
or Sign In

Or sign in with:

Policy Page

PLEASE NOTE

The login above DOES NOT provide access to Fire Engineering magazine archives. Please go here for our archives.

CONTRIBUTORS NOTE

Our contributors' posts are not vetted by the Fire Engineering technical board, and reflect the views and opinions of the individual authors. Anyone is welcome to participate.

For vetted content, please go to www.fireengineering.com/issues.

We are excited to have you participate in our discussions and interactive forums. Before you begin posting, please take a moment to read our community policy page.

Be Alert for Spam
We actively monitor the community for spam, however some does slip through. Please use common sense and caution when clicking links. If you suspect you've been hit by spam, e-mail peter.prochilo@clarionevents.com.