“DO WE REALLY NEED TO DO THAT EVERY TIME?”

BY DAVID M. MCGRAIL

Ponder the question "Do we really need to do that every time?" as it relates to your daily operations. Recently, the Denver (CO) Fire Department (DFD) adopted four-way hydrant valves as part of our water supply operations. We use three-inch hose as our primary supply line and generally employ a forward hydrant-to-fire hoselay for most of our fireground operations. Our SOPs mandate that the first-arriving engine company lay a supply line from a hydrant and thus establish a sustained water supply to all reports of fire or smoke in any structure.

At working fires, prior to the implementation of hydrant valves, the second-due engine company gets a separate, secondary water supply as a backup to provide a redundancy if a system fails, be it a hydrant, a supply line, or the pumper. At those fires that are not quickly controlled, the next-due engine companies go to work at the first- and second-due engine companies' hydrants, thus establishing relay pumping to increase volume and pressure. However, this practice of "going to work" on a hydrant that is already supplying water to another pumper requires shutting down the hydrant, thus interrupting the water supply to complete the necessary hook-ups.