Techniques for a kink-free hose line

We spend a lot of time in Quick Drills talking about the importance of working on our basic firefighting skills and how focusing on those skills before an incident will make or break your performance.

There is a tremendous amount of discussion about the importance of getting quick water on the fire. While this has been a long held tradition in many fire departments, its importance is currently being documented in studies conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Underwriters Laboratories (UL) with their fire department partners around the U.S. Quick water on the fire is a direct result of fundamental hose line management.

Starts at the Truck

Quick water begins when the hose is loaded correctly. When the hose is perfectly loaded, there’s a much better chance it will deploy perfectly as well. Many times when we load hose back onto the apparatus, it’s on the backside of a fire and we are tired, hot and dirty; the last thing we’re thinking about is how good the hose load looks and how well it will deploy next time. Take the time to do it right. When you do find a bad hose load on the apparatus, pull it off and load it correctly. Remember: the next time you pull it off is when it is the most important.

Correct Hose Load

Whatever hose your department uses, you and your crew should practice working with it to efficiently stretch hose lines to the seat of the fire. Every department does it differently, so spend time working with your crews in estimating hose needs and then actually stretching it.

Work on the little things such as checking that the last few folds of hose are cleared from the hose bed before moving toward your intended point of attack. These last folds can result in extreme kinks that reduce flow if they’re not cleared from the hose bed. Keep in mind that routes that follow sidewalks may not always be the shortest or most effective route to take. Look toward your objective for obstructions that may impede your advancement, such as trees, mailboxes and parked cars. The tires on parked cars provide a natural pinch point that will snag hose as it’s being advanced toward the fire. These pinch points may require a crew member to be left behind temporarily until the advancing hose line has cleared the obstacle.

Remember that our goal is to get as much hose as possible to our point of attack before charging the line so that we don’t have to move charged hose every time the line needs to be advanced. The key is having extra hose at the nozzle end of the line so when the line is charged, it can easily be advanced to the right area.

One of the best ways to get more hose to the fire area is to avoid letting the hose pile up at the apparatus. We often get caught up in the excitement of the incident and try to make up time by rushing, leaving a big pile of hose at the side of the apparatus. The pile can cause kinks that make advancing additional hose to the fire more difficult. For most residential structure fires, if the nozzle firefighter has the nozzle and one additional hose coupling, it should provide 50 feet of working line that can be advanced into the area where it is needed.

Before charging the line, take time to lay or flake the line into a figuration that will help support advancement once the line is charged with water. One popular method is flaking the hose from side-to-side in front of the entry point so, when charged, the line will make sweeping “S” curves, reducing the possibility of kinks. Another method: keep the nozzle and first coupling close to the entry point and stretch out the line perpendicular to the opening, allowing the line to be advanced straight into the opening.

Kinks

Kinks in the hose line are our enemy, and we always have to be aware of the dangers they pose. It doesn’t matter what your job is on the fireground; it’s everyone’s job to chase kinks on the line. Some common areas where kinks occur include close to the apparatus due to a pile of hose, around parked cars, through doors and outside the initial entry point where extra hose is used for advancement. Help advance the line by chasing kinks and pulling additional hose.

It’s a good idea to develop a few hose management drills for your crew. Start by recognizing the advantages and disadvantages of your department’s hose load and make them clear to your crew. Review the buildings in your response area, focusing on apparatus placement, which has a huge impact on hose line deployment and management. Review the lengths of your lines and determine if your lines are too short because of new construction or unique buildings in the area. Most importantly, get out and train by pulling lines in your response area until everyone in your crew has it perfected. It takes time and hard work to be good at anything, and nowadays when we don’t have the opportunity to deploy as many hand lines as we did in the past; we have to train harder to make sure we get it right when it counts.