Catching the Hydrant - Train Hard & Train Often!!!

How many of us practice “catching” a hydrant or dropping supply line at the end of a driveway before we drive up to the actual scene and start getting ready to fight fire? More often than not, the first due engine company pulls up, drops the attack lines and begins the process of setting up for the attack before water supply is really established. It’s the second due company and the driver of the first due company that do most of the work in getting a steady water supply established while firefighting is underway.

I am glad to say that my department preaches water supply. We protect areas that are well protected by hydrants as well as areas that are very rural, where the nearest water supply may be 2 or 3 miles away if not further. As a part of our initial training as well as continued training throughout the year we practice catching the hydrant in a drill my department has famously dubbed “The Dingo Drill”, more on that in a bit. We place such a high importance on the establishment of water supply early on in the call, that our SOG’s list it as one of the requirements of the BIR (Basic Incident Report) when the first due engine company arrives on scene. Regardless of where the call is, even if the first due engine caught a hydrant on the way in, the officer in that truck calls the rest of the apparatus responding and tells them they have an established water supply. In other situations they will say where they dropped their supply line and gives the second due officer (the person responsible for all water supply ops by policy) a suggested course of action based on the location of the call.

By doing these core functions very early on in the call, it solves a lot of the issues that tend to creep up later on in a call, and in the end help quickly mitigate the call. A few of these are:

1. It allows fire attack whether offensive or defensive to continue without interruption the vast majority of the time.

2. It allows the first due officer and subsequently the officer who ends up assuming command of the call, the ability to handle and concentrate their time and attention on mitigation and safety without having to worry about the logistics of water supply.

3. When going interior on a fire, it prevents us from having to pull crews out due to lack of water.

The key to making this work, is in the training and in the planning. Without both you will run into a lot of problems. Problems that we faced several times over, before coming up a detailed way to fix the issue. Below are some fundamental keys to understanding your departments situation. I use mine as an example of how we identified our districts needs with our ability to respond, what our typical apparatus manning is and what our apparatus capabilities are, coupled with our mutual aid resources.

1. We knew from practical experience, that by the time the 2^nd due truck arrived, we needed the water off of it in a rural setting. Even if that truck arrived with the attack engine. Our manning was such, our first due engine company (typically 5 including the driver, officer and 3 firefighters) were fully committed to operations on a true working structure fire. The Tanker even with 2 personnel would not be able to drop the drop tank, get set up, hook up the supply line laid by the attack pumper and feed it by the time the attack pumper needed the water. OUR SOLUTION: The tanker immediately nurses the attack engine from the tank, then sets up the drop tank if that’s appropriate when more manpower arrives and the third due tanker drops water in it and we begin the shuttle.

2. Mutual aid (if not automatically paged by dispatch) is called for by the senior officer on the call, as the first engine company leaves the station. Regardless of whether it’s a confirmed fire or not. This ensures we have extra water coming. This will also ensure we have extra manpower and equipment on the way before we arrive on scene. This way, by the time we get there, get to fighting fire and go through the first 3000 gallons of water (in a rural setting) that third tanker should be there, and by the time that truck is empty the next truck should be there etc.

3. We figured out that without constant training, and hard in depth initial training on the fundamentals of catching the hydrant, and laying supply line we wouldn’t be in the right mind set to do it when we needed to do it. My department doesn’t run 300 structure fires a year. We don’t run half that many. We needed the constant reminders of how to operate.

4. Personnel placement was key. The senior officer on the call needed to make sure he had assigned the right people to the right jobs. In some cases that meant junior officers began the call with a lot of responsibility.

5. Communication was another key. We have tactical channels on our radio and we needed to use them. As much of the call that could be organized before arrival, needed to be organized. On a small department like mine, the officers can tell by voice who is in what apparatus. Ironing out a basic plan eliminates a lot of the guess work and running around when you arrive on scene.

In essence, securing the water supply is not just the next guys job. It’s also the first guy’s job. That second truck my get delayed.

Now, for some info on “The Dingo Drill”:

This drill is fairly simple. We have a location where we can practice out of the sight of the public, catching a hydrant. We pull up to the hydrant hot, the individual hopes out, grabs the bag, wraps the hydrant, signals the driver, the engine leaves. At that a pre-determined point, the engine stops and begins to the flow water…..onto the hydrant. Once the water supply is established to the engine company, the water onto the hydrant stops.

The goal (in addition to some good old fashioned fun) is to teach the following:

1. Once the apparatus stops, getting the hydrant properly hooked up and flowing water (according to our SOG’s) needs to be accomplished in a quick manner.

2. This is a stressful situation and the task needs to be done under duress (hence the water). They need to be able to operate under those types of conditions.

For those interested, contact me, and I can send you a video (I tried to include it but I couldn’t get it to work).