BY BILL GUSTIN
Stretching a hoseline to an upper floor of an apartment building should be a fairly basic task for any fire department. Unfortunately, many departments today lack the personnel needed to rapidly stretch a hoseline through a courtyard, to an upper floor, and then advance it down a smoky hallway. Further, many departments outside the big cities do not configure their hosebeds to facilitate a rapid stretch up return-type stairs above the second floor. Folds or flakes of hose pulled from the main hosebed are generally too long to drag up stairs and around corners without the hose snagging on railings and other obstacles. Crosslays, of course, are shorter than the main hosebed and can be carried on the shoulder or under the arm instead of being dragged. Crosslays, however, are generally preconnected and limited to 200 feet in length. This isn’t a lot of hose when you consider that it can take as much as one 50-foot section to ascend from floor to floor when hose is laid on return-type stairs.
Stretching Hoselines to Upper Floors of Residential Buildings, Part 2 | Part 3
Here, we will examine methods and techniques for rapidly stretching hose to the upper floors of low-rise multiple dwellings that are not equipped with standpipes. The focus is on residential buildings, such as apartments, condominiums, hotels, and motels, where the floor plans above the first floor are typically identical (for example, apartment 455 will be directly below apartment 555). This characteristic of residential building design helps firefighters to locate and reach fires, as well as to calculate the length of the hoseline they must stretch. Additionally, residential units are fairly compartmented and generally have a fire load and area within the suppression capabilities of one 13/4-inch handline flowing 180 gallons per minute (gpm).
In contrast, business occupancies such as office buildings may have a different floor plan on each floor, depending on the needs of the individual tenants. Unlike residential buildings, modern office buildings lack compartmentation, which helps limit rapid fire spread. Office suites with areas spanning more than several hundred square feet are usually divided by movable partitions that separate cubicles or work stations. Compart-mentation in modern office buildings is further compromised by the use of a common ceiling plenum for HVAC air return. In essence, each floor of a modern office building can be one big potential fire area that can overwhelm the suppression capabilities of one 13/4-inch hoseline.
This article is written, and should be read, with the understanding that many fire companies lack the personnel commonly found in big-city fire departments. Many fire departments today consider themselves lucky if they can staff their engine companies with a crew of three: an officer, a driver-engineer, and a firefighter. Understaffed fire companies must be careful when they attempt big-city tactics without big-city resources.
Every hose stretch must be preceded by a thorough size-up that answers three crucial questions: (1) How do we reach the fire? (2) How much hose will it take? and (3) How many firefighters will it take to stretch the line? Command and engine company officers must recognize those hose stretches that require more personnel than one company and, when necessary, must add personnel from other companies to get that critically important first attack hoseline in position and operating on the fire.
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STRETCHING THROUGH AN ADJACENT UNIT
Garden apartments and motels are commonly built around a courtyard; windows, balconies, and sliding glass doors face a street, lawn, or parking lot. Residents commonly enter their units through a vestibule or breezeway in between buildings that can be a considerable distance from the street or parking lot. Look at similar buildings in your district. Consider the time, the number of firefighters, and the length of hoseline it would take to reach a burning apartment from inside the courtyard.
Now consider this scenario: Smoke or fire is showing from a window facing the street or parking lot within a few feet of your pumper. In this case, forget about a long stretch into the courtyard. Take a more direct approach: Ladder a balcony or window to an adjacent unit, enter, and stretch through the adjacent unit to reach the hallway entrance door to the fire apartment. Now you can attack the fire and protect the public hallway in a fraction of the time it would take to stretch into the courtyard, up the stairs, and down a hallway.
Hoisting a hoseline to the fire floor of an apartment building with exterior balcony hallways:
 (3) The end of the hoisting rope is snapped to the railing. The rope bag is ready to drop to a firefighter waiting below. (Photos by author.)
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 (4) The nozzle is hoisted to the fire floor. The snap hook fastened to the end of the rope facilitates tying a rapid girth hitch behind the nozzle.
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HOISTING A HOSELINE WITH A ROPE
Hoisting the hoseline with a rope is an extremely rapid method of stretching a line to the fire floor or, when necessary, to the floor below. Where the line is stretched depends on fire conditions and building design. Hoisting a hoseline up the exterior of a building requires far less hose and personnel than laying it up a stairway. One 50-foot section of hose can reach from the ground to as high as the sixth floor. Hoisting a hoseline may, therefore, allow the use of a 200-foot preconnect instead of a complicated, personnel-intensive stretch. The use of preconnects, of course, depend on the size of the fire building, the location of the fire, and how close the apparatus can get to the building.
Many times, hoisting is the ideal way to stretch a line up into a fire building with exterior balcony hallways. In this case, it is rare that you would have to initially hoist the hoseline to the floor below. Rather, attach the end of a small-diameter rope stuffed into a bag to a railing a safe distance upwind from the fire apartment, and drop the rope bag to the ground. When hoisting hose, it is critical to pull up and lay out sufficient hose to (a) reach the door of the fire apartment and (b) reach all points inside the fire department. This must be done before the line is charged; the hose may be too heavy to raise once it is filled with water.
Once the nozzle is hoisted, give it to the nozzleman, who will stretch hose to within a few feet of the fire apartment. Do not, however, stretch the uncharged line past any apartment windows that could suddenly fail and emit a blast of flame. Once the nozzle reaches the door to the burning apartment, continue to pull up hose, and lay out sufficient line to reach all points inside the fire apartment. This will vary with the size of the apartment but generally would be one 50-foot section.
Once sufficient hose is laid outside the fire apartment, it can be charged. The hoseline, however, must be secured on the fire floor with a short section of rope or tubular webbing before it is charged, or the weight of the water will pull the hose off the hallway balcony, and it will land on the ground in a tangled mess.
The best way to secure a suspended hoseline is to tie a girth or rolling hitch below a set of couplings. Make sure you pull on the hose below the hitch to take the slack out of the knot and ensure that it will hold.
 (5) The line is stretched from the hoisting point, upwind of the fire, toward the fire apartment.
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 (6) Fifty feet of hose is laid out behind the nozzle so that it can reach all points inside the fire apartment.
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 (7) The nylon strap hitched behind the couplings will secure the hoseline to the railing. Stepping on the hose holds it in place while the hitch is being tied.
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TEACHING NEW PERSONNEL
My department is experiencing a period of unprecedented growth. As a result, we presently have a great number of well-trained but relatively inexperienced probationary firefighters. This is what I tell our new people about hoisting a hoseline: “This isn’t the fire academy; you don’t have to satisfy an instructor by tying a nozzle and a 13/4-inch hose with a clove hitch, two half hitches, and a safety knot.” This is unnecessary and terribly time consuming. Consider also the time it would take to untie an overly secured knot once the hose is hoisted.
When hoisting 13/4-inch hose, a simple girth hitch behind the nozzle is sufficient. Better yet, hoisting ropes should have snap clips attached to both ends to simplify fastening to a fixed object such as a balcony or a railing and the hoseline. I also tell our new people to take off their bulky firefighting gloves when tying knots or performing other nonhazardous tasks that require dexterity. Our firefighters do not wear gloves until it is time to don their SCBA facepiece and enter the fire area. This practice, however, requires that company officers ensure that firefighters put their gloves on before performing any task that could cut or burn their hands.
BILL GUSTIN, a 30-year veteran of the fire service, is a captain with Miami-Dade (FL) Fire Rescue and lead instructor in his department’s officer training program. He began his fire service career in the Chicago area and teaches fire training programs in Florida and other states. He is a marine firefighting instructor and has taught fire tactics to ship crews and firefighters in Caribbean countries. He also teaches forcible entry tactics to fire departments and SWAT teams of local and federal law enforcement agencies. Gustin is an editorial advisory board member of Fire Engineering.
