1000 GPM Put on Fire With Use of 5-Inch Hose
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The use of 5-inch hose can provide 1000 gpm on the rural fireground with less manpower and equipment than a tanker shuttle. When access to the fire is by a narrow road, the large-diameter hose also avoids the problem of only one tanker at a time being able to use the road.
The Catawissa, Pa., Fire Department has been successful in using 5-inch hose. The department protects Catawissa and Franklin Townships, which have no hydrant systems, as well as the Borough of Catawissa, which does have hydrants.
When the department responded to an alarm in our rural area last June 21, we found a large barn and two smaller buildings burning. There also were two exposures, a home about 75 feet from the barn and another home about 200 feet from the barn.
About 900 feet from the fire, there was a small pond alongside a narrow lane barely wide enough for apparatus. A second alarm for Tender 54 and Engine 51 was transmitted.
Tender 54 is a ¾ -ton flatbed that carries 1200 feet of 5-inch hose on a large reel. Engine 51 is a 1000-gpm pumper set up to supply the 5-inch hose with three preconnected 2 1/2-inch lines to a 2 ½ X 2 1/2 X 2 ½ X 5-inch Siamese.
Engine 51 was placed at the pond, and the tender laid 5-inch hose up the narrow lane to the fireground. The 5-inch hose was attached to a portable hydrant.
By using the 5-inch hose for supply, 1000 gpm was put on the fireground. No tanker shuttle was necessary and there was no shortage of water.
As a result, the two-outbuilding fire was extinguished and the exposures were protected. This enabled the owner to house his livestock even though the barn was destroyed.
