Bob Oliphant
Lieutenant,
Kalamazoo (MI) Dept. of Public Safety
Response: Our department has been using fog nozzles for a long time. Most of our fires involve single-family dwellings or houses that have been converted to apartments and are extinguished with 1 3/4- and 2 1/2-inch handlines using automatic fog nozzles. New nozzles were acquired along with new apparatus until the transition from fixed-pressure/fixed-gallonage fog nozzles to automatic fog nozzles was eventually completed approximately five years ago.
Because the change took place over a period of time, I am not sure people realized the differences in nozzles or their advantages. We have a good water supply system and could always develop good streams regardless of the type of nozzle used. The advantage of automatics for us is the ability to pump more gpm without having to change nozzles or go to a larger line. We are evaluating the concept of smooth-bore nozzles, but I do not expect a sudden change.
For larger fires, we still have the option of using smooth-bore nozzles on 2 1/2-inch lines or master-stream devices. These devices are prefitted with fog nozzles but can be changed over. From my experience, we usually continue to use the fog nozzles.
We have automatic nozzles on all our aerial master streams. They were selected because of their ability to maintain good stream characteristics under changing pumping conditions that likely would be encountered if they are needed.
