relay pumping question?

[coderadio]

Looking for some help from the Pros, here.

In a relay pumping operation where you have a supply pump, such as a portable feeding a pumper, which then feeds an attack truck, what is the proper start-up shutdown procedure?

Its clear that you start by feeding from the portable source to the relay pumper, then that truck advises the attack unit that water is available, and when the attack operator advises he/she is ready the relay charges the supply line and the attact truck then starts fire fighting operations.

The question is what is the proper way to coordinate a shutdown procedure? My assumption is that the attack truck advises the relay pumper that water is no longer needed and shuts down, next the relay pumper acknowledges and shuts down, and finally advises the portable that they can shut down. I have also heard that that the portable should shutdown first after it knows that the attack truck no longer needs water. But that seems to be counter-intuitive to me.

What's the general consesus? (or better yet the absolute proper procedure)

Thanks!

[distchief60b]

The answer is so obvious..it is easy to miss.

Attack pumper says to suply pumper...." I am shutting down", Relay pumper relays to supply unit..."shutting down"....then supply unit shuts down.

That way as long as the attack pumper needs water he/she has it...and controls supply from a safety standpoint.

[Ten8_Ten19]

Can I ask a somewhat similar question here? As a rookie I had to run an attack piece at a major fire (over a dozen departments and thirty plus pieces of apparatus working on multiple fronts). A truck from a department we rarely work with supplied me off a hydrant and had two hand lines pulled himself. I went to his supply immediately without going to tank water. It was a quick knockdown with a fairly short overhaul. I didn't have visual contact with my supply piece and radio traffic was nearly impossible with so many different agencies working. During overhaul I shut the supply line down and went to my booster tank so I could recirc and not cook my pump. A while later we finally made contact and he shut down my supply line. His handlines were operating out of my view and I wasn't sure if he was still flowing to them or not. What little training I had at the time preached keeping the pump cool to avoid damage but I was also concerned about the supply pumper. This was an unusual situation but would you have done anything different?

[jsdobson]

Unless it was going to make a real muddy or icy mess, you could have opened another discharge or handline to "dump" excess water. That way you would be cooling both pumps.

[DaronG]

teneight, I probably would have done the same thing as you and opened my tank refill to top off allowing him to flow some water every now and then and hopefully he would take the necessary actions to keep his own pump cool by doing something similar at his end. I am used to having a limited water supply so it is drilled into my head to save as much water a possible so I wouldn't dump onto the ground unless I just had to. Another option I have used once was to run a supply line from my truck back to the supply truck. The supply truck was about 50' away and I had a probie with nothing to do that could pull a line for me. The supply truck at this time was running off of his 3000 gallon booster tank and had a RIT line on the ground so we were able to keep both of our pumps cool without me having to flow off of my booster tank. For the most part though I do exactly what you described. One time I did pull a line and ran to my own booster tank but that was because my tank refill valve malfunctioned on the scene and another problem altogether.