Tonight members drilled with the hydrant assist valve. The HAV is a device that allows an engine to lay hose from the hydrant to a fire (forward lay) and then start water flowing from that hydrant. They can then have another engine tie into the hose lay and boost the pressure in the hose line without shutting down the hydrant or the hose line. Tonight Engine 6 layed into Truck 8 and then turned around and went back to the hydrant and pumped the hydrant assist valve. At the beginning of the evolution with Truck 8’s aerial pipe being fed directly from hydrant pressure they were flowing less than 500 gallons of water at 55 psi. When Engine 6 started to feed the Truck through the HAV, it boosted the pressure to 115 psi and Truck 8 was then flowing nearly 900 gallons per minute. It illustrated the capability of the device in real time. We had a number of newer firefighters in attendance tonight and it was great to get out and put our hands on a piece of equipment that we don’t use often enough. It was also great for experienced firefighters to see this piece of equipment working as well. In our business we never stop learning!!
Crews finished off the night with an escort for one of the York Little League teams from Smith Field to Ruby’s (one of their sponsors) as they had been victorious over Scarborough in a State Championship. The detail was coordinated by York PD York Village apparatus was right around the corner training. We were more than happy to provide an escort!!! Congratulations guys!!!
