"Outside The Box" Engine Company Operations

Engine Company work is often viewed as easy or not as fulfilling as "Truck Company work". This is absolutely not the case and some very "high speed" Engine Companies go to work everyday in very tough and arduous environments. They are only successful by relying on their relentless training, personal experiences and hunger to progress in the engine world.

This group is geared toward Engine Company tactics that use "outside the box" thinking to accomplish. Its purpose is to exchange information that will help others that view the discussions, posts and pictures. 

Innovative Ideas For "Making The Stretch"

The fire service is a great place with an enormous amount of talent. In this discussion, post photos of "outside the box" ideas for stretching attack lines. Whether it involves obstacles, getting to upper floors, using alternative access, etc. Provide material for others to fill their mental toolbox with.

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    Timothy Patrick McCloskey

    At the firehouse we enjoy talking about new ways to deal with obstacles which lead us to talking about stretching lines around cars and corner of buildings.  When dealing with cars the main thing we have to think about is getting the line caught underneath a car tire which could prevent you from making the full stretch with your hose as well as not getting water at the nozzle.  This happens because crews advancing the line, pull the line to make sure it gets tight which signifies the crew has brought all the hose with them and didn't leave any behind.  Then we talked about getting caught the hose caught, coming up short and realizing it has everything to do with a car tire. During our discussion we saw a car rim laying on the street and we decided to give that a try.  A few of us remember seeing a picture of something similar from and engine company in Chicago so we threw the rim down. Well, it worked out with no issues at all. The couplings and hose moved along the rim as if it was a wheel in an assembly system.  Below is a picture of what we used.