Making Your Engine Work for You

By Richard A. Fritz

When was the last time you looked at your engine? I don’t mean just to see if the last shift parked it straight, washed it, or cleaned the mirrors. I mean really looked at the engine?

Is the engine, the way it sits now, today, an effective tool for you? Is the engine a reflection of the department’s history and tradition, the “way it’s always been,” and an overlooked source of inefficiency and frustration? Does the engine and its hosebeds, hose loads, tool locations, and seating arrangements work with you to make you more effective, or do you fight it every time you go out the door?


(1, 2) Photos courtesy of author unless otherwise noted.

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Today’s engine company must be designed to function under all types of conditions and, without a doubt, function with minimal staffing and still be effective. You cannot have an engine whose hose loads and finishes and tool locations are based on what the department did 20 years ago, back in the days when there were five or six firefighters assigned.

Take a look at the engines in photos 1 and 2. They are both from the same department. Photo 1 was taken in 1972; photo 2 was taken in 2002. Notice any similarities? Both engines are Amer-ican LaFrance apparatus. With the exception of the addition of large-diameter hose and a switch to 13/4-inch hose, the engines are loaded the same way.

In 1972, an officer, a driver, and two firefighters staffed the engine. In 2002, an officer, a driver, and one firefighter staffed the company. Beginning to see a problem? Hose deployment and management is an issue with most fire departments today. Effective engine company operations begin in the fire station with the engine.

The first step in effective engine company operations is to not overlook the obvious. The engine is your toolbox, and its equipment must be laid out for speed, accuracy, and versatility. The engine should be laid out in such a way that it is effective for your usual staffing situation, not for staffing levels that you will never see or see only in off-vacation seasons.

Where do you store equipment on the engine? In compartments where it fits or in specific compartments designed to help firefighters quickly locate and get commonly used tools and equipment? Unorganized compartments will delay even the most knowledgeable firefighters under stressful conditions. Firefighters should be able to reach into any compartment and place their hand on an adapter, cap, tool, or other piece of equipment without even having to look. Neat, clean, logically used compartments and tool locations will make a noticeable difference in company efficiency on the fireground. Consider grouping tools together and putting them where firefighters can easily get at all of them at once. For example, place all the tools needed to make a hydrant hookup together in the same compartment. Some departments put them in a bag or bucket so that the hydrant firefighter can take all the tools he may need when performing the task of hydrant firefighter.


(3, 4, 5, 6) Proper location of tools and equipment is vital for engine company efficiency.


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Engines should also have more than just required minimums. It never hurts to have extra adapters, valves, caps, and fittings on the fireground. If you spec out a new engine with all new tools and fittings, what happens to the old stuff? In many departments, it may go to a reserve engine, but in just as many departments that stuff ends up in the basement or storage room. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s no longer useful. It may be a little heavier than the new stuff, or it may not be as pretty and shiny, but at 2:00 a.m. as the third alarm is being struck and you need to stretch a second gated 21/2-inch line down the alley to protect the exposures in the rear, you will be glad you kept that extra gated wye.

An engine company’s hose complement must be loaded for fast and effective operations under all types of fire and emergency situations. Supply hose loads must be well thought out and versatile. If you lay forward 90 percent of the time, what about the 10 percent when you need to reverse?

Engines must be able to lay hose in any direction. Look at your engine and then review your response area and run book. Were there situations recently where you could have been better positioned if you had reversed out rather than laid forward in? Did you block out the truck at the last fire, forcing the use of ground ladders instead of the aerial? What about laying into a standpipe or sprinkler connection? Depending on how you’re loaded, your crew may need to make use of adapters. What about splitting the bed instead and loading half a load for forward and half a load for reverse? If you are using LDH as supply, what about loading the 21/2- or three-inch to supply standpipes and sprinklers and to have available as an attack line? Having hose loaded in this fashion allows the officer the added advantage of deploying big lines with a small staff. No adapters are needed, and the hose doesn’t need to be “turned around.” Attachment of a nozzle and quick deployment will ensure that big water can be applied rapidly.

Intakes should be “preconnected” so that the driver can make hydrant connections unassisted. Keeping hydrant tools and adapters in a “driver’s compartment” near the pump panel will ensure that the driver has his own set of tools to make connections with and isn’t searching rear compartments of the tailboard for needed wrenches or adapters.

Attack hose loads must be deployable by one firefighter, not two or three. If you normally have two or three firefighters, there are other tasks that can be accomplished as a single firefighter gets the hose stretched to the designated location. Attack hose loads should be precisely loaded and the loads checked often. Poorly loaded hose will de-ploy the same way—poorly. It will end up in piles of spaghetti or twisted, snagged, and unusable. Review what hose load is loaded on the engine and why it is loaded that way. Is it loaded a particular way for efficiency or because it’s the only way it will fit in the hosebed? If your answer is “because we’ve always loaded it that way,” you’ve just become one of the dinosaurs that you have complained about for so long.


(7) Reverse loaded 21/2- or three-inch hose can be used to supply sprinklers and standpipes or as attack lines without using adapters.

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(8) Front intakes can make quick work of hydrant connections. Drivers can make this connection unassisted.

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(9) Attack hose must be easily deployed. Inefficiently loaded attack hose will have a negative impact on the efficiency of your engine company. (Photo by Andrew A. Fredericks.)

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(10) Don’t just talk about it. If change is needed, show others how to make the engine more efficient.

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Effective engine company operations begin in the fire station. On your next shift, gather your crew together and take a good hard look at the engine. Walk around and talk about how the engine is put together. You will be amazed at some of the common-sense suggestions that will come from the other members of the company. Write the suggestions down. Change is hard in the fire service, and if you aren’t in charge of the company where you can institute changes, you will need to document the pros and cons of the changes you recommend.

Don’t give up. If your department is like many of the departments across the country, you will be looked on as though you had two heads. The most important thing you can do to expedite change is to change only those things that need to be changed. If your company is functioning efficiently with its current hose configuration, stick with it! Perform this reevaluation with a positive attitude, looking only to change those things you know are inefficient.

Be sure to document the results of your “efficiency study.” Pictures, diagrams, and drawings help tremendously when making your case for change. Time your company during drills using the “old” methods vs. your proposed methods. Having this type of information will help you make your case with those who have the final say over change.

Most of all, don’t overlook the obvious. Minor changes and modifications may be all that are required.

RICHARD A. FRITZ, a 31-year veteran of the fire service, is battalion chief of training for the High Point (NC) Fire Department. He has served as program chairman for the Hazardous Materials Technical Program at Scott Community College in Bettendorf, Iowa; firefighting program director for the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute; and fire science program coordinator for Harrisburg Area Community College in Pennsylvania. Fritz is the author of the book Tools of the Trade: Firefighting Hand Tools and their Use and the videos Tools of the Trade, #1: Cutting and Striking Tools, #2: Push/Pull Tools, #3: Prying Tools, and #4: Power Saws, published by Fire Engineering. He is an FDIC HOT program coordinator.

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