NS13Jarhead 6 Posted October 10, 2012 Hey, Bullethead, What's the longest hose run you've had to do when fighting a fire? Up here we just had one that took 1,700 feet to draw water into the pumper. Firefighters were called to the home in the 8400 block of Piney Avenue at 3:40 p.m. to find a fire in the basement, said Prince William fire and rescue Battalion Chief John Shiflett. The fire extended into the home’s first floor before firefighters could extinguish it, officials said. Damage estimates are currently unknown. The three occupants home at the time got out safely before firefighters arrived. The home sits off a series of one-lane gravel roads in a secluded and hilly neighborhood. Because there were no fire hydrants close to the home, Shiflett said firefighters had to utilize a rural water supply and about 1,700 feet of hose to provide water for their fire attack. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HumanDrone 4 Posted October 10, 2012 YOW! that's a lot of hose! I'm surprised you had any pressure! Glad guys like you and Bullethead are out there, I can't do it but I donate every year. By the way, I'll wave atcha this evening, BH, on my flight from Charlotte to N'Awlins! Best to both of you, Tom Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NS13Jarhead 6 Posted October 11, 2012 Oh, no, no, no. I may be a little off kilter, but not crazy enough to run into a burning building. I had enough excitement in the Marines, I don't need more now that I'm retired. I just pulled that story off the local news. The neighborhood where they had the fire is on the way to my kid's school. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bullethead 12 Posted October 18, 2012 Hey NS, sorry for the lag. What's the longest hose run you've had to do when fighting a fire? Up here we just had one that took 1,700 feet to draw water into the pumper. Egad! That's a total bitch (thinking of picking it up afterwards). The longest I've ever been involved with was 1 mile of hose, although the distance on the ground was only about 1/2 a mile, thanks to totally careless hose-laying that zig-zagged it all over instead of laying it straight. This was about 10 years ago when we had a 40' stakebed truck carrying 72 chlorine gas cylinders (for municipal water wells) flip over and burn. At that time, my department owned zero 5" hose so this came from 2 hose tenders (1/2 mile each) we got from big cities 20 and 40 miles away via mutual aid. The worst part was, this massive hose lay was totally unnecessary. The fire had been out for about 3 hours by then and we were only using water to spray a cooling mist over the scene (it was 104^F, and ) and a couple of garden hoses for decon. This entailed moving a tanker up to dump about every 1/2 hour. No big deal. But then a new chief showed up and he thought this was unsafe, there being about 150 people on the scene by then, so he ordered we lay a line instead. And we've never let him forget it to this day There is a happy ending, however. At that time, the hose tender from the closer big city had its hose on a huge, hydraulically powered reel, which was not only a total pain to deal with, but also highly dangerous. And it had to be loaded exactly right or not all the hose would fit. Needless to say, after an 8-hour incident in extreme heat, thos of us reloading the reel were too stumbly to do it right, so a few days later (when it was 102^F) I had to go down there and help reload the reel correctly, which entailed laying all the hose out again on the asphault of the parking lot of an abandoned shopping center. While reeling up the hose this time, the hydraylic system burned up and the department considered it not worth repairing. So, they converted the truck into a stakebed with the hose laid flat, and everybody lived happily ever after :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
