Secondary Hose Stretch

Does your engine have a reserve or secondary line? This line is not a main per-connect, "the second line" or the back up. This line functions as a reserve set up. 

Certain situations may require positioning your hand line to another area. The problem it creates, once it’s charged the time and effort to re-position increases. The line in operation would be shut down, possibly drained, and redeployed which under some circumstances is a labor intensive ordeal. A dry, fresh line is much easier to stretch in comparision to the line that was in service. Typically we would only use this tactic during defensive fire conditions or when we are in the incident stabilization phase of operations. To start the evolution, ensure no harm will come to anyone operating on the Fireground if your stream is shut down. Back out and place the line in a secure location, so it won't be accidentally opened up. Proceed back to the apparatus to start the secondary line and stretch dry to that new location. If your the only engine on scene and only pulled 1 main pre-connect, of course simply stretching another pre-connect works too. Another reason to have a reserve line, it could also serve as a safety line. What if the lead line fails? Do you have something in hot standby?

Another scenario we may face, what starts out as a 2.5 fire turns into a 1.75 fire. If you have already stretched 150-200 of 2.5, do you really need to replace that length with a 1.75? A way to allow for a quick change without re-stretching or losing valuable water is to use a shut off valve on the 2.5, with a break off tip regardless if it’s smooth or combination nozzle. You can then add 50-100 feet of 1.75, based on needs, rather then stretching new.

This method also may work for long stretches. 300ft in length is the max with 1.75, but if you start with 2.5 you can stretch closer to 500 feet using 1.75 without the friction loss.

Image 1: Example of a 2.5 to 1.5 playpipe with shutoff and 2.5 to 2.5 inline shutoff.(add an 1.5 reducer in this case)

Image 2: Lines connected. 

Image 3: Bale secured with a piece of utility rope. 

Try to position this new "shut off" somewhere out of the way and stable. Most times you shouldn't need to drag this once the 2.5 is fully stretched.

Some organizations call this set up the "Commercial Lay", "Horizontal Standpipe", or “Bomb Line". When my company puts this line into service it is typically a defensive strategy up-front, then we will add the small lines for mop up, hot spots or give us reach to the Charlie side.

The non-preconnected pre-connect:

For a non-preconnected lay using 1.75, position this flat load along the side of the commercial lay. My engine has 200 feet of reverse lay supply line that only uses 50% of its bed. We filled the empty space with an additional 100 feet of 1.75, a combination nozzle and a gated wye. This mimics a high rise kit, although we do not have high rises, we simply pull this the same as a pre-connect when stretching. If it has to been done, we can shut the 2.5 down, connect the gated wye and have 2 1.75 male fittings to supply lines.

Although all personnel on the fireground should have the physical ability to re-deploy their line, it could be of more benefit to stretch a new dry line when time is of the essence.