BY JAKE RIXNER
In 1980, the Kentland Volunteer Fire Department in Prince George's County, Maryland, purchased two new pumpers to augment its fleet. These new apparatus each had two boxes mounted on each side of the front bumper with a 11/2-inch discharge for each. The pumpers were unique in that they had no crosslays, which were becoming very popular at that time in fire departments across the United States.
Today, many fire departments are specifying front bumper preconnects. Most use the lines for trash fires, for automobile fires, and as standby lines at auto extrications. Kentland uses its front bumper lines for all of these jobs and also as the primary line for house fires. The department has 22 years of experience using this configuration and an average of 125 working building fires per year.
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