Hoseline Operations for Residential Fires

By Bill Gustin

Proficiency in stretching, advancing, and operating hoselines cannot be achieved by studying a book or by discussion in a classroom “chalk talk”. Hose evolutions require skill and teamwork developed only through frequent, intense, and realistic drills. There are several ways to get a hoseline into position and operating. It is up to each fire department to preplan the residential developments in their jurisdiction, such as courtyard, garden apartments,to devise the most effective hose evolution for each occupancy.

The following article consists of tactics and some basic techniques for stretching, advancing, and operating hoselines. Some methods you may already know and some you may not but all are functions that are vital to fulfilling the most basic duty of the fire service.

Lets review some size-up factors that must be considered before an engine company deploys a hoseline at a residential fire.

LOCATING THE FIRE

At multiple dwellings, the fire’s location may have to be determined before spotting the apparatus in order to find the street, parking lot, or entrance closest to the fire. Don’t commit apparatus until it is determined where the fire is and how to reach it.

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Don’t let civilians or police officers do your size up. They are not qualified to tell you where to spot your apparatus or stretch your line. Several times, I have experienced well intentioned police officers attempts to direct fire companies into a housing project where they see smoke or fire showing from a window only to have had the access into the building on another street or lot.

THE PATH TO THE FIRE

After a fire is located, an engine company must determine the path to the fire. The company must decide which door, hallway, or stairway should be used to reach the fire with the proper amount of hose. Furthermore you have to determine the best method for getting a hoseline to upper floors, such as a stair way stretch, hoisting by rope, or carrying it up a ladder.

Parking, landscape surroundings, courtyards, etc. There are many obstacles that would necessitate a long hand stretch of 2 1/2 or 3 inch hose to reach the fire. We’ll discuss more about stretching 2 1/2-3 inch hose below.

These firefighters found that a pike pole is the most expedient means for raising a hose line at this garden apartment

This stairway is the path chosen to reach a fire in an upper-floor apartment. Notice that the firefighter doesn’t flake the hose around the stairway but rather uses the space between the stairs to continue extending hose. This stretch known as a well stretch is ideal when the space allows

As a new lieutenant, I once directed my company to stretch to the front door of a house with fire showing in the rear. In my excitement and haste, I neglected to walk around the house doing a 360° around the structure. Consequently, I failed to see a second door that led to a rear efficiency. This house was originally built for one family but was later renovated into two separate residences. As a result, we could not reach the fire through the front door. The embarrassment of watching the second due engine company put out our fire was a hard lesson. Engine company officers must look for signs that a house has been divided into multiple occupancies. Such indications include more than one mailbox or gas meter or a rear outside stairway leading to a second floor.

SIZE OF HOSELINE

Many engine company officers, including me, tend to rely too heavily on the 200 foot 1 ¾ inch preconnect hoseline. This line is very effective for most of our fires, because most of our fires occur in relatively small, compartmental residential buildings. This can cause an engine company to stretch an 1¾ inch preconnect out of habit when a fire is beyond its reach or capability.

Officers and firefighters of an engine company must learn to recognize fire conditions in residential occupancies (however infrequent) that are beyond the suppression capabilities of an 1¾ inch handline. Consider the size and design of modern suburban houses. Spacious open floor plans and vaulted ceilings can allow a fire to grow to a volume that can require the flow of a 2½ inch hoseline.

An engine company faced with a heavily involved two car garage, for example, must contend with a massive fire load that includes vehicles, gasoline containers, liquefied petroleum gas grill cylinders, and an attic full of combustibles. The situation is made worse when there are bedrooms above the garage or flames from the overhead doorway, or venting through the roof of a one-story garage, are impinging on the second floor of a two-story house. This fire demands the immediate application of a 2½ inch hoseline flowing at least 250 GPM to control the heavy fire condition in the garage and stop its extension to the house. A second hoseline must be stretched through the front door of the house as soon as possible. This second line is critical if firefighters are to stop extension into the kitchen and attic as well as protect personnel ascending the open stairway to search second floor bedrooms.

Remember you’ll never overcome the BTU’s without the proper GPM

LENGTH OF HOSELINE

The length of hoseline is determined by the size of the fire building, how far back its set from the street, and any obstacles one has to overcome such as fences, landscaping, or parked vehicles that keep apparatus at a distance.

Single family homes in older neighborhoods tend to be relatively small, less than 2,000 square feet, and have fairly small front yards. This is well within the range of a 200 ft preconnect. At fires in small houses, the nozzleman usually brings the nozzle to the front door and then flakes out 50 ft. of hose on the sidewalk leading to the front porch before charging the line. The hose is arranged in an “S” or “W” configuration to facilitate advancing through the front door and to ensure that there is sufficient hose to reach any point in the residence.

Now let’s contrast this with new suburban developments where homes larger than 5,000 square feet are not uncommon and are usually set back a considerable distance from the street by a large front yard. This can call for a stretch far greater than 200 ft and necessitate that the nozzleman flake out as much as 150 ft of hose at the front door to reach the fire.

There is a limit to the length of 1 ¾ inch hoseline that can be stretched. Exceeding this maximum length can result in excessive friction loss, dangerously high pump discharge pressures, or inadequate gpm flow. Flow testing is the only accurate way for a fire department to determine the maximum length of its 1 ¾ inch hose stretch.

THE NUMBER OF FIREFIGHTERS

The number of firefighters needed to stretch, advance, and operate a hoseline is most accurately determined by drilling under realistic conditions. It’s a good idea to conduct occupancy-specific drills in conjunction with prefire planning. Often firefighters can get permission to conduct drills in new multiple family residences while they are in the final stages of construction. This is an excellent opportunity to devise the best hose evolutions for a particular complex of buildings and determine the number of firefighters needed to execute it.

An excellent example of occupancy-specific training took place in West Palm Beach, Florida. There firefighters were faced with the construction of a large town house development. Each attached single family residence, or row house, has a garage on the first floor, a living room and kitchen on the second floor, and bedrooms on the third floor.

West Palm Beach firefighters were challenged to devise the most expedient method for getting a hoseline to a bedroom fire on the third floor. They had to consider their limited staffing and that the front entrances are inaccessible to fire apparatus. Their objective was to avoid a personnel intensive hose stretch up two flights of return stairs that did not line up in the same stairway.

They chose a method that involves spotting an engine in the rear parking area, dropping a rope down from a second floor window, and hoisting a 1 ¾ inch preconnect. Firefighters then take the nozzle to the base of the stairs leading to the third floor, flake out extra hose in the living room, and then secure it with nylon strap before charging the line. The line is advanced up one flight of stairs with sufficient hose laid out on the floor below to reach any point on the fire floor.

Engine companies must choose hose evolutions based on the available staffing and realistic expectations of what they can accomplish. Don’t attempt a hose advance that needs six firefighters if you have only three. A fire officer operating with inadequate personnel may have to think creatively and realize he cannot fight fire in textbook fashion. Instead, he must devise “expedient” tactics to get water on the fire.

STRETCHING PRECONNECTED HOSELINES

As I have mentioned in previous articles, certain preconnected hose loads, such as the horseshoe or minuteman, are ideal for stretching around corners or up stairs because firefighters carry most of the hose load as it plays off their shoulder or forearm. Hose that is flat loaded or packed in a triple layer is usually dragged into position. Consequently, it has a tendency to snag on fence gates or corners or between vehicle tires and pavement. This necessitates that personnel be positioned at obstacles to keep the hoseline moving. This can be time-consuming when there are more corners and obstacles than there are firefighters. In this case, firefighters must move from obstacle to obstacle, pulling up slack hose along the way. They should begin at the obstacle closest to the engine and complete the task when sufficient slack hose is laid out at the entrance doorway.

Firefighters can arrange their 1 ¾ “preconnect into an improvised horseshoe that can be carried and played out through a serpentine of corners and obstacles. To improvise a horseshoe, first stretch the hoseline out on the sidewalk or street, then grasp the nozzle, take three steps back along the hoseline toward the engine, and pick up a fold of hose. Continue to pick up a fold of hose every three steps until you have 50 to 100 feet of hose draped over your forearm

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While I am writing this article, local television stations are featuring news reports of firefighters in South Florida training in eradicating Africanized honey bees by spraying them with firefighting foam. Additionally, I see reports on local firefighters training in how to rescue horses and livestock when they are submerged in mud.

These new services in themselves are fine. Because firefighters are the public’s first line of defense, we are continually being called on to take action in a widening variety of nonfire emergencies.

It is not fine, however, when a new discipline or another government-mandated training program takes training time away from basic functions such as hose evolutions. Firefighters must train on the basics to safely and effectively provide their most basic and important service of firefighting.

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Bill Gustin

A 39 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 around the country. 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 federal law enforcement agencies. Gustin is an editorial advisory board member of Fire Engineering.