What is your department's procedure for pumping into the Standpipe System?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by L. Chapel on December 22, 2008 at 5:17pm

Our high-rise packs are comprise of 2.5" hose with a 1 1/8" smoothbore nozzle.
Tallest building is 16 stories. With that said:

FLOORS----------PSI at the FDC
0-10-------------------- 150
11-20------------------ 200
21-30------------------ 250

6" soft suction hook-up with a min. of two 3" lines feeding the FDC.

Our firefighters are trained to disable any PRV when attaching to SPO (standpipe Outlet).
We only have one building that we know of with Pressure Regulating Valves that are non-adjustable. All others are Pressure Restricting Valves that are meant to be disabled by pulling a pin or breaking the tab or arm.

Our standpipe kit contains an inline pressure gauge.

Permalink Reply by Mike Walker on December 22, 2008 at 6:39pm

Good information Les

Do you guys immediately take over supplying the standpipe by having the FD pumpers control the operation or do you let the building pump try to supply the pressure?

How do you guys disable a PRV that isn't field adjustable?

Permalink Reply by L. Chapel on December 22, 2008 at 6:59pm

Our second engine hooks right up. No waiting around.

There isn't anything to do except reconize that they are there. The building with the Pressure Regulating Device that I refered to has all internal workings with nothing external to disable the valve.

Permalink Reply by John Norman on January 18, 2009 at 8:20pm

Our procedure at SP Ops is for the first engine to immediately supply the siamese if the SP is to be used. Given the low pressures that may be available in the system, especially on the upper floors, this is critical, even if the system has an automatic fire pump. The fire pump is not going to adjust for pressure fluctuations from one level to the next. If the fire is near the bottom of the SP zone, the pump may be adequate. If it is near the top, it may not, even if the FD is using the proper size hose and correct type nozzle as Les is. Fire pumps can be OOS, can be disabled by electrical failure, or other mishaps. We use our engine, much like we use our hose instead of the building's.
At serious fires, it is policy to have seperate engines stretch additional supply lines into other siameses ( a good rule of thumb: use a seperate supply line for each attack line in operation, we use 3-1/2" hose for supply to SP's) or supply lower floor outlets in addition to the siameses. NYC is pretty unique in that the larger the buildingin floor area or street frontages, the more siameses are required. Most other cities permit only a single siamese for the SP, this can easily be overloaded. The more water you can stuff into that system, the better.

Pressure requirements reflect Les's chart, continuing adding 50 psi for every 10 floors as a starting point. This is adequate for the hoseload Les describes, 100 feet of 2-1/2" hose w/ 1-1/8" solid tip. Longer stretches, smaller hose or fog nozzles require additional increases in pressure.

Al PRV's must be removed or disabled for FD use. Non adjustable PRVs that cannot be bypassed may have be sidestepped by stretching from the street, or from a floor that is at the top of the next lower zone, thus not having a PRV

Permalink Reply by Mike Walker on January 18, 2009 at 8:40pm

Thanks for adding to the conversation Chief

I keep talking with people from around the country who have experienced failures in combination systems. These failures have not been catastrophic to the operation but they do create a tremendous amount of water damage. I am curious if you have seen the same?

I have never heard about sidestepping the PRV from an upper floor but it makes very good sense to me. Did you guys have to do this very often?