Alaska fire hoses

[Tortuga]

Any firefighters here?

 

Here is a video clip of a pile of fire hoses used to fight fires in Alaska.

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/peopleandplaces/the-mountains-of-hoses-that-have-been-used-to-fight-fires-in-alaska/vi-AAdrDv6

 

I was on an oil refinery emergency response team and we trained to fight fires, so I've rolled up a few hoses but this is unbelievable!

[Rosalie4u]

Wow - the fires are scary but I did not know that they had to bring all those hoses back to be washed and rolled up and that is a huge amount!

[Precision]

 

 

I was on an oil refinery emergency response team and we trained to fight fires, so I've rolled up a few hoses but this is unbelievable!

 

Only 830 miles of fires hoses collectively.     

[Tortuga]

Only 830 miles of fires hoses collectively.     

Only 4,382,400 feet. 

 

It looked like mostly 2.5", some 1.5" and it looked like some 1" wildland hose. The equipment that I trained on used 5" hose, that was hard to roll up!

[Tortuga]

Wow - the fires are scary but I did not know that they had to bring all those hoses back to be washed and rolled up and that is a huge amount!

I don't know about the forestry department but at the refinery that I worked at all of the hoses were numbered and their service history was tracked. They were pressured tested annually and discarded after a set lifespan. If that young man has to do all that, those hoses will rot before he is done.

[Friends just call me Ross]

At our fire training tonight, we had to drain, pick up and re-lay 1,200 feet of 5" soft suction hose,

and repack 300 feet of inch and half, and 200 feet of two and a half inch hose.  And coil up a few more

50' sections of inch and a half hose.  That was enough.  Especially

since it was 95 degrees in the shade with high humidity and a heat index of over 100.

 

At least the chief didn't make us wear our turnout gear.  

We would have all dropped from heat exhaustion.

We just paced ourselves and guzzled gator-ade.  

 

It started to cool down around 10:00 pm,

right when the training was ending.   

 

They actually make battery-operated hose rollers and hose washers:

[Tortuga]

At our fire training tonight, we had to drain, pick up and re-lay 1,200 feet of 5" soft suction hose,

and repack 300 feet of inch and half, and 200 feet of two and a half inch hose.  And coil up a few more

50' sections of inch and a half hose.  That was enough.  Especially

since it was 95 degrees in the shade with high humidity and a heat index of over 100.

 

At least the chief didn't make us wear our turnout gear.  

We would have all dropped from heat exhaustion.

We just paced ourselves and guzzled gator-ade.  

 

It started to cool down around 10:00 pm,

right when the training was ending.   

 

They actually make battery-operated hose rollers and hose washers:

 

That is a LOT of work!

We were able to take off our turnout jackets and stay in our Nomex to roll hoses.

 

I would have loved the power roller for the 5" Storz, the soft suction is a rubber hose, not a canvas hose, that stuff gets HEAVY!

We used a trailer and laid most of the 5" in it instead of trying to roll it. We had one mobile monitor that used 6 5" hoses and had a 6000 GPM capacity.

Edited July 28, 2015 by Tortuga

[Precision]

That is a LOT of work!

We were able to take off our turnout jackets and stay in our Nomex to roll hoses.

 

I would have loved the power roller for the 5" Storz, the soft suction is a rubber hose, not a canvas hose, that stuff gets HEAVY!

We used a trailer and laid most of the 5" in it instead of trying to roll it. We had one mobile monitor that used 6 5" hoses and had a 6000 GPM capacity.

Yes LOTS of work indeed!  Did you use the close quarters mobile track mounted fire suppression monitors ? Designed also to use gels and foam retardants ?

[Tortuga]

At our fire training tonight,

 

We trained once a month at the refinery and once a year we went to the University of Nevada Fire School Academy in Elko Nevada and do a week of training. I have some awesome pictures of our night burns.

[Tortuga]

Yes LOTS of work indeed!  Did you use the close quarters mobile track mounted fire suppression monitors ? Designed also to use gels and foam retardants ?

 

Track mounted? What do you mean?

We had several types of mobile monitors, some 150 - 300 GPM stayed in the units and the large ones were kept at the station.

[Tortuga]

Track mounted? What do you mean?

We had several types of mobile monitors, some 150 - 300 GPM stayed in the units and the large ones were kept at the station.

 

Here is a picture of a 6000 GPM Ambassador from Williams. There is a 5" connection on each side and four of them in the back. The trailer is actually sealed and you fill it with water before you charge all of the hoses. 

 

[Precision]

Track mounted? What do you mean?

We had several types of mobile monitors, some 150 - 300 GPM stayed in the units and the large ones were kept at the station.

 

The newer remote controlled fire suppression monitors that can gain up to another 1000' of operating distance manufactured by Fire Drake industries.

[Tortuga]

The newer remote controlled fire suppression monitors that can gain up to another 1000' of operating distance manufactured by Fire Drake industries.

 

Nope. Haven't seen them. I'll look it up. 

[Precision]

Drake monitors are used in Hazmat incidents and can be mounted with gel packs,  water injected curtains surrounding the monitor to keep the heat down, and non -sparking track systems, chemical sensing and thermo-video camera options.