Hose Lays

[Guest Close bjhfd]

I would like some comments to the following issues. Currently, on the rear of our engine we have 1000 feet of 4 inch supply line and 1000 feet of 2 1/2 line that used to be a secondary supply line. Right now we have two debates going on in regards to reorganizing this. The first is that one officer believes we should have the 2 1/2 hose packed in an accordion lay, and a few others believe a flat lay is better. What are your thoughts between a flat lay and an accordion lay?
The second debate is what we should do with the 1000 feet of 2 1/2? Some believe we should leave it how it is, and others believe we should add a divider to the hose bed have 600 feet as a dead lay, and the other 400 feet as a preconnected alley lay. Once again, any and all thoughts would be appreciated.

[Guest Close firetrucker]

wow, thats alot of hose sitting there doing nothing! How about considering taking some of that 2 1/2 and connecting it to a portable deck gun so you could move it easily. We have one set up like that and it works great if you need to protect exposures quickly and with alot of water. I might also take a couple of hundred feet and leave it dead. Take the rest and put a nozzle on it or something. 2 1/2 inch hose is a valuable tool, whatever you do I wouldn't just leave it laying there, put it to use, you have more than enough 4 inch up there.

As for flat or accordian lay, I would take an educated guess and say flat is better...... I have heard that accordian lays can damage hose over time, and if you leave the 1000 feet up there I'm guessing that it is at more risk. Don't quote me on this, I'm just going on what I others have told me. I don't know anyone around here that uses the accordian lay..

[Guest Close jj1967]

We used to accordian our 2 1/2. It looks nice but what a pain to pack. And if you accidently charge the bed (as I watched a mutual aid company do one night) it is no simple task to unjam, unlike a flat load where it just flies off.

[Guest Close colfireman]

As for your hose loads,if the 2 1/2 is for a supply line then I would use a flat load.If its for an attack line then the accordion in my mind would be better.The logic is that on an attack lay we have our men throw 50' over their shoulder and 50' on the ground between each firefighter and it's easier to flake over the shoulder hen it's a accordion load.Do you commonly use both the 4" and the 2 1/2" for a double lay from the hydrant?Our area has an extensive hydrant system so we generally use the 4" for supply only.Each of our trucks carry 1000' of 4".

This is my own opinion only!!!

[Guest Close Rescuespike]

On our engines we use an accordian lay. It is easier to determine how much hose you have laid at a fire. We currently have 2000ft on our first out engine and 1500ft on the second. The flat lay drops off of the truck better though.

An answer for you second question is I personnally would keep the 2 1/2 together. You can always break it down into two seperate lays if needed.

Chris Schultz
Riverview Fire Dept.
Lieutenant

[Guest Close spo0k]

That kind of depends what you use your 2 1/2 inch hose.

Our department has a 400' 2 1/2" flat load with a gated wye down to 1 3/4" pack. The nice thing about this load is that right before the gated wye, we put a 2 1/2" bell on there, so if the fire is kickin us too hard, we can shut off the handline and unhook the wye, now we have a 2 1/2" smooth bore attack line with us.

Right next to it on the bed we have a 200' 2 1/2" attack load thats put on in a tri-fold, which imho is the best load to use for attack lines, walk 50' from the truck and your entire line is flaked out and ready to go.

Just how we do it, may not work for your department.



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FF. Mike Burnes
Whitehall Fire Division

[Guest Close CaptKup4]

We use 5" and 3", but same principle. We have 900' of 3" and 800' of 5" on every truck. We use 5" off of hydrants for supply, and lay 3" initially if we have tank water. Both are in flat loads and come off of the truck easily. As far as using 3" hand lines, we have an ongoing debate. Our preconnects are 1 3/4" with adjustable nozzles to 200 gallons so the argument is no need for 3" hand lines for only 50 gallons more.

Back to the original question. We use flat loads for ease of loading and deploying. Also, fewer bends in the hose will cause less damage as it sits in the bed. Just my opinion.