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Archiver > BERENDO > 1999-02 > 0918008096


From: "ALEX MAGDALENO" <>
Subject: Re: Hydrant Quest
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 20:14:56 -0600


City departments do it different than rural depts. If they see a hydrant on
the way to the fire and it's less than 500 ft, they will take the hydrant
and lay to the fire. Other wise they will tell the second or third engine to
come in from the other side and lay a line to them. Rural companies may have
to wait too long for their second engine so they will usually stop at the
fire and drop off lots of hose a shut off valve and all necessary equipment,
and the engineer will drive to the hydrant and pump the hose back to the
fire. I have hand laid hose to a hydrant while pumping from the tank but it
is difficult to do in a forward direction, and you only have a few minutes
and usually no help. Anything more than one hundred feet took too long. We
only had three men on an engine.
We carried enough water to pump one 1&1/2" line for about 5 minutes. We have
put out a lot of fires with that much water, but it can be risky. A good
engineer always lets his captain know if he's low on water so they can pull
out of tight spots. Cal OSHA has some very strict rules now so the fire
chiefs made us go by the book.
Alex
-----Original Message-----
From: mike dumas <>
To: <>
Date: Tuesday, February 02, 1999 1:07 PM
Subject: Re: Hydrant Quest

>Hey Al! -I seem to recall that one by the church alley. But now I'm
curious:
>When the nearest hydrant is, say, down at Imperial, and the house is
mid-block,
>does the truck hook up by the hydrant then run up the street trailing the
>hooked-up hose? Or do they first pump water carried in the truck while hand
>crews run hose to the hydrant? Or?
>
>--mike
>

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