
First-In Engine at Fires Distant From Main Road
departments
The Volunteers Corner
What does the first-in engine company do when the fire is down a long driveway—200 feet or more—in a residential area or deep inside an industrial complex?
Basically, that first-in engine company officer has two objectives: (1) apply an adequate amount of water to the fire as quickly as possible and (2) immediately arrange for a continuous water supply.
If it is obvious from the main road that the fire demands the use of 2 ½ -inch lines or even master streams, then it is well worth the extra time to back the engine down the driveway or a narrow road in an industrial complex and then stretch parallel lines to a hydrant. If you have large diameter hose and a manifold to which 2 1/2-inch hand lines can be attached, then stretching a 4 or 5-inch hose line in the same manner as described for parallel lines will provide the maximum flow in the shortest time.
When in doubt: However, most fires we encounter cannot be easily evaluated for required fire flow when you are 200 or 300 feet away. In some cases, you may not even be able to see the fire from the main road. So that first engine must go directly to the fire and you have to accept the fact that this engine will not be able to change its position until the fire is extinguished.
With 500-gallon and larger booster tanks, there are advantages to sending the first-in engine directly to the fire when the extent of the fire cannot be determined from the main road. The odds are that a quick attack with a preconnected 1 ½ or 1 ¾-inch line will extinguish the fire. You might even have to use a preconnected 2 ½-inch line. In these cases we are talking of flows of 50 to 250 gpm—well within the limits of a 500-gallon booster tank for 2 to 10 minutes of single hose line use.
Actually, you can forget the 10 minutes because if you use a 50-gpm stream on the fire for 10 minutes, you most certainly should have used a larger-flow nozzle that would have darkened the fire down in shorter time.
Another advantage in getting that first-in pumper close to a fire of a size that cannot be determined from the street is that a closer view may indicate the advisability of a blitz attack with a 500-gpm or heavier stream from a deluge set mounted on the apparatus. If you size up the fire as suitable for a blitz attack with a 500-gpm stream, then you should be able to darken down the fire in less than a minute and have a little water left for a 1 ½ – inch overhaul line to seek final extinguishment.
Another alternative when the building is not too large, the structure is heavily charged with smoke and the fire is in the smoldering stage for lack of oxygen is the indirect attack with a fog stream of 50 to 250 gpm. Again, we are within the limitations of a 500-gallon booster tank.
Providing a water supply: The conditions we have outlined show the options available to the first-in engine company officer. Whichever option he selects, he must simultaneously take the first step in establishing a continuous water supply by dropping parallel lines—or a large diameter line—at the main road before continuing to the fire.
The second-in engine company then couples its hose to that dropped by the first engine company and proceeds to a hydrant—or to a static water source to draft.
Time your next drill in this evolution to determine how long it takes your companies to establish a continuous water supply under average conditions. You don’t have to stretch many lengths of hose in a drill because the time variable is all in coupling the lines at the driveway and hooking up to the hydrant. Stretching hose at 10 mph is a constant and that time can be figured for various distances.
The time that you establish in drills for your average distance between target hazards and hydrants or drafting sites will guide the officer of the first-in engine company in selecting the options available to him. If the second engine has a gated large suction intake, the pump operator can flow water from his booster tank to the first-in engine while others are completing the hydrant hookup. That saves time.
Considerations: It may save just enough time to give assurance to the first-in officer that he can start a 250-gpm hand line attack and know that if the attack fails to knock down the fire immediately, he will not run out of water.
Your drill time results also may show that if the fire requires a large flow rate, that first-in engine will run out of water before the water supply from the second engine can be established. In that event, the first-in officer must use what water he has to protect exposures and apply it at a rate that will continue the exposure protection until more water becomes available. Then he can move from a defensive operation to an attack on the fire.
The options we have been discussing require judgment based on knowing the capability of the department to establish a water supply and being able to size up a fire situation in terms of required water application rates. Admittedly, these decisions are not easy to make, but knowing the options and your capabilities makes them feasible.