Tonight members drilled at the York Middle School with complicated hose stretches. The YFD like most fire departments relies heavily on pre-connected hoselines of pre-determined lengths in 200′ and 300′ But what happens when the “everyday” hose load doesn’t suit the requirements at hand??? This drill was designed to make the members think and add “tools” to the “toolbox” in this case a nearly 600′ stretch. The members decided to stretch 300′ of 4″ Large Diameter Hose (LDH) to a gated wye and then run their 300′ 2 1/2″ handline off of that. The members all felt it was mandatory to have 2 1/2″ hose since we were stretching on a commercial occupancy, in this case a school. Thinking being that we can always make a big line smaller if necessary. This drill works for other applications as well, including houses with long driveways or any other situation where our 300′ preconnect is going to fall short. The officers of YFD would like to applaud the critical thinking shown by the members tonight.
