Under Pressure
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MAINTENANCE
Can your hose pass the test? Annual checks help ensure it will be reliable.
Picture this: It’s 2:30 a.m. when, with a single engine company, you pull up to an occupied, two-story frame dwelling. Flame is showing from several first-floor windows. Next-due units won’t arrive for 5 to 10 minutes. Under the protection of a single 1 3/4-inch line, the company officer and two firefighters are conducting a primary search, knocking down fire as they quickly examine each room for trapped victims. They’re making good progress when, with a sickening whump, a section of hose tears from its coupling, stranding the crew deep inside the building and allowing the fire to renew its attack.
One step in preventing a nightmare like this is to subject your hose to a hydrostatic test every year in accordance with National Fire Protection Association Standard 1962, entitled “The Care, Use, and Maintenance of Fire Hose.” This standard outlines a safe, uniform method of testing hose that will weed out defective lengths before they can turn an effective fire attack into chaos. Besides ensuring safety, testing hose to this standard allows a department to earn the maximum credit for the fire hose service testing portion of the Insurance Services Office grading schedule now in use (a significant 13 percent of the total points available for pumper equipment). And for departments with little major fire activity, the tests guarantee that every section of hose is removed from the apparatus at least once a year, inspected for damage and wear, and repacked into the bed with the folds in different places.
NFPA 1962 calls for recording extensive data about each length, including its own identification number; the manufacturer and part numbers; the vendor; the size and length of each section; whether the hose is singleor doublejacketed; whether the jackets are made of synthetic or cotton yarn; and when the section was first placed into service.
Individual departments can modify this requirement to suit their own needs. Enough information should be collected, though, to allow various brands and styles of hose to be compared for future purchasing. The record kept for each section should include an entry each time it’s tested so the maximum ISO credit will be awarded. An individual card or file can be kept for each section, or the records can easily be kept on a personal computer spreadsheet.
When a department starts a program, and upon receipt of any new hose section after that, a unique identification number should be assigned to each section. This number may be stamped into the couplings or stenciled onto the jacket with indelible marker or ink. In either case, to facilitate inventorying stored hose, the number should be placed at the end of the hose left exposed when it’s rolled.
(Photos by Dan Henderson)
Departments that frequently fight fires together will benefit from coordinating their numbering systems so that a hose’s ID number will show which department owns it. And departments that hang their hose doubled in a tower to dry might want to place a band of ink around the center of each section to locate where the hose should be placed to hang evenly.
A little careful thought and planning of the testing procedure will overcome two objections some officers make against testing hose with a pumper: that it ties up a truck that might be needed at a fire and that it wears out the apparatus prematurely. For extremely busy companies, the first objection may be valid, and purchase of a hosetesting rig may be justified. But for most departments, the second objection is overstated; proper operation by a trained and attentive engineer will place little, if any, added wear on a well-maintained pumper.
The actual hose testing is a serious job that can be dangerous if certain basic safety precautions aren’t observed.
The test site needs to be convenient to the hose drying and storage areas, but unless your personnel enjoy spending their off-duty hours defending themselves against liability suits, access to the site must be restricted to those actually involved in the testing. A level, cordoned-off parking area beside or behind the fire station is ideal, provided there’s a means of connecting the pumper or hosetesting rig to a water supply. Because a ruptured section will thrash about violently until the pressure is relieved, spectators and parked vehicles must be kept a safe distance away.
Prior to testing, all hoses should be physically inspected for jacket defects, coupling damage, worn or defective gaskets, and signs of wear or mildew damage. Any hose showing these defects should be repaired before testing or retired from service. A line should be drawn on the jacket at each coupling so that, during the test, any slippage of the jacket from the coupling will be detected.
If a pumper is used to generate the test pressure, it should be equipped with a hose-test gate valve (HTGV) installed between the pump outlet and the hose being tested. This device is nothing more than a standard fire department gate valve with a ¼-inch hole bored through the gate. Its purpose is to limit the energy that will enter the hose being tested; if a section fails, additional water won’t rush in to keep the hose flailing about. Modifying a standard gate valve in this manner renders it useless for almost anything besides testing fire hose, but the safety it provides justifies the purchase of a replacement valve.
Connect the HTGV to a discharge outlet on the side of the pumper opposite the pump panel, so the operator won’t be near the hose while raising and lowering the pressure. Connect the hose to the male end of the HTGV in lengths no longer than 300 feet, and lay the hose as straight as possible. If testing more than one line at a time, connect a wye or manifold to the male end of the HTGV; connect no more than 300 feet of hose to each outlet thus provided.
Hose straps or utility ropes, attached 10 to 15 inches from the inboard end of each line and securing the hoses to the pumper, will relieve the stress created on the couplings where the hoses bend toward the ground.
Finally, to the outboard end of each line, attach a nozzle or a test gauge equipped with a bleeder for releasing air.
With the HTGV and the gauges or nozzles open, allow water to fill each line and gradually bring the pressure to 50 psi. When all air has been expelled, close the HTGV and the nozzles or bleeder valves, then tighten any leaking couplings. The pressure may then be slowly raised to the specified level. Because pump pressure will equal hose pressure in the closed system of the capped hose, the pressure will be maintained through the hole in the gate valve. If a section fails during the test, however, the HTGV will prevent the wild thrashing that usually accompanies this event during a fire.
Most hose used in the fire service is tested at 250 psi for 5 minutes, because that’s at or above the pressure normally encountered during use. But you should check Table 8-3 of NFPA 1962 for the proper test pressure for different hoses in use in your department.
Some departments have made the mistake of testing their hose at the 600or 800-psi pressure stamped on the hose. This number is intended only to indicate the kink, proof, and burst test pressures that the manufacturer used when the hose was new. Used hose should never be subjected to these pressures; serious personal injury can result from a hose failure, gate valve or no. According to the Fire Equipment Manufacturers’ Association, hose manufactured in the future will have the annual test pressure stenciled on the jacket, instead of the higher, new-hose pressure; this should eliminate this confusing and potentially deadly error.
Far better that your hose should fail during a test than inside a burning building.
While the service test is being conducted, personnel should carefully walk alongside the lines and look for signs of jacket slippage, weeping, and other evidence of damaged or defective hose. Personnel shouldn’t pull or push lines that are under pressure and should never straddle the lines. All defective hose should be removed from service immediately for repair and retesting or should be permanently retired from service.
After five minutes at the specified pressure, slowly reduce the pressure, close the pump discharge, and open the nozzles or test gauges to drain the hose, while inspecting the coupling marks closely for slippage.
Record the date of testing for each length on the permanent record for each section.
Some hose can be expected to fail during each annual test. Far better that your hose should fail during a calm, routine test than when it’s a crew’s only protection inside a burning building. Give your hose a good going-over, and you’ll work the next “big one” with the confidence that your hose will go the distance with you.
