Where firefighters come to talk training

Standpipe Crowding

We have discussed standpipes in the past, but I think it is worth mentioning again. Standpipes in large and high rise buildings are our water source. It is important to know the location of these devices and to ensure that they are not obstructed.

In addition we need to know and understand if they have pressure reducing devices and how that affects our operations. Study up on these systems and know how to adapt and trouble shoot the stand pipes in your area.

The picture shown is a stand pipe in a hotel. I went to ice in the hotel I was staying in and this was right next to the ice machine. I didn't measure it, but this standpipe would be very difficult to connect to. Additionally, if we did get connected with hose only, there would certainly be a kink at the coupling, further reducing our pressure.

This might be a time when we would try to put an elbow on the connection prior to connecting our hose. However, I think that with this particular standpipe connection, it would be a stretch just to get the elbow connected as well.

Know your buildings and their systems. Prepare for these types of problems and come up with solutions before you have a fire. Thanks for reading and train hard.

Jason

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Permalink Reply by Mike France on June 20, 2011 at 7:49am

We eliminated this problem with 2 company's here by having them have preconnected 1 3/4 hose 400ft [ one company is a Resin manfacturer and has a tower with 5 levels , so each level has preconnects and all we do attach our nozzle]. but yes you are right we need to know ho building s are set up.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Bricault (ret) on June 20, 2011 at 12:02pm

-Mike, sounds like you're saying that you had the company create a modern day "hose cabinet"?

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Permalink Reply by Mike France on June 20, 2011 at 1:18pm

hey , with the cheap the bosses i have yes , it was easier to do then asking for hose and extra nozzles for mall packs in all honesty Mike , it saves us time in the tower at the one compnay in return for them buying the equipment we go in an test the hydrants for them and flush them . By the way thank for the info you sent , we are working on a finished product i will send it to you to look at.

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