Department Members Arrive To Pick Up New Fire Hose For Engine 1 And Then Install It At The Next Training Session |
Firefighters Bob Pallas and Garret Jones arrive to load up new fire hose for Engine 1. The hose currently on Engine 1 is a bit old and unsafe. It is at least twelve years old and a section burst during a recent controlled structure burn. A burst hose can endanger firefighters at the worst possible moment - while inside a burning structure. It's 1 3/4" double-jacketed hose with an 800PSI burst rating and has a warranty of 10 years. What's more, Engine 1 will soon have color-coded hose. Yellow, orange, blue and white hose lays will do away with potential confusion due to all the hose lays being white. Also, it's a step up from the existing 1 1/2" hose. The new hose has a diameter of 1 3/4" which greatly reduces the friction loss over the length of the hose lay. This, in turn, means more pressure at the nozzle. It's going to make a significant difference for the nozzle operatators. They're excited. To give an example, when pumping 180 GPM through one of the 70-200GPM TaskForceTip nozzles, the 1 1/2" hose looses 78 PSI per hundred feet. The 1 3/4" hose looses only 54 PSI per hundred feet. That's an improvement of 48PSI over a 200 foot hose lay. It really adds up. Everyone pitched in to get hose installed on Engine 1. We regret that we did not get a chance to take pictures of everyone. The series ends with Jarred Jansen and Joanne Krause holding up a section of 2 1/2" hose that somehow took a nasty trip through Ryegate, Montana. They're getting a total of 575 feet of each of three colors... that's 1,725 feet of hose! We're getting the hose from www.keyfirehose.com in Miami, Florida. Look for "Key Municipal" hose. |