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Extending off the initially short-stretched hoseline’s nozzle shutoff is common in the fire service. This is often due to longer-than-anticipated stretches and a changing built environment. A common solution is the use of hose bundles. One hundred feet is a common bundle using two 50-foot lengths. The problem is how firefighters add them to the original hoseline. Using the original nozzle shutoff to extend the hoseline is adding an unnecessary element that creates an operational failure point where none existed before.
Some departments use gated wyes with bundles, but I am not including that in this discussion. I am only speaking about instances where you have same-diameter hoseline extensions run through the first line’s shutoff. Using the first line’s shutoff to extend the attack line is problematic.
Extending the Hoseline: Overcoming a Short Stretch, Part 1 | Part 2
Stretching short occurs from a poor stretch estimate. It also occurs because fire departments have not created a longer distance hosebed to stretch from. It also occurs due to a lack of personnel. Two of these are fixable, but for many the latter is not, unless more firefighters get involved in the initial stretch.
The operational and safety concern is about the transition point where a nozzle shutoff is left in place and the additional hose is added to it to reach the fire. This midline shutoff is now the potential failure point in the stretch.
Why aren’t we simply removing the first shutoff and attaching hose to hose and then using that same original nozzle for fire attack?
Using the original nozzle:
- Eliminates the concern that the bundle has a nozzle.
- Eliminates the use of a midline shutoff on your attack hoseline.
- Eliminates the risk that the midline shutoff will be jeopardized, along with your water supply.
- Eliminates tying off the midline shutoff so it will remain open.
- Eliminates someone having to monitor the midline shutoff to keep people away.
Informing the pump operator that the hoseline needs to be shut down and then recharged after you make a simple hose-to-hose connection is by far the most straightforward, seamless, and safe approach.
When you add the bundle onto the shutoff, you must safeguard it to stay open and you must ask your pump operator for a pressure boost for the new hose being added. Why play games by adding an appliance where none is needed? Kill the line, make the hose-to-hose connection, and be assured you have a clean attack line from pump to nozzle.
Keep Fire in Your Life
RAY McCORMACK retired as a lieutenant after 39 years in the Fire Department of New York. He was the lead author for FDNY’s Engine Company Operations Manual and developed and taught Back to Basics Standpipe for all FDNY firefighters. He was the cofounder and editor of Urban Firefighter magazine. He was the 2009 FDIC keynote speaker. He has a bachelor’s degree from the New York Institute of Technology. He is a member of the FDIC/Fire Engineering editorial advisory boards. He was a panel member for the Underwriters Laboratories studies “Impact of Fire Attack Utilizing Interior & Exterior Streams on Firefighter Safety” and “Occupant Survival Study and Study of Coordinated Fire Attack Utilizing Acquired Structures.”