FireNuggets, Inc
A pre-connected line can be great if your
department responds to fires requiring the
same stretch on a frequent basis. For example,
a residential neighborhood with identical
houses and identical setbacks from the street.
But even in this situation, does every hose bed
on your engine need to be the same sized pre-
connect? When more than one size pre-connect
is available (and especially when longer ones
are present) is it really faster to deploy the
entire pre-connect for a short stretch? Would it
be more efficient to deploy just what you need
and break the line? Should you have a bulk bed
available for longer stretches, and should you
have one for both 1.75” and 2.5”?
These are the questions (among many others)
that led us to Retired Captain Dennis LeGear
and Captain Daryl Liggins of the Oakland fire
department. Much, if not all, of the information
in this article is based on what Oakland FD,
along with Aaron Fields of The Nozzle Forward,
were gracious enough to bestow upon us. We
spent 2 years trying a variety of different loads
and utilized both simple wooden hose bed
props along with a steel prop identical to our
actual engine for development. This process was
May 2017
Pre-connect: hose of a fixed length
already connected to a discharge.
Bulk load or static load or dead load:
hose not pre- connected in the bed
providing variable lengths up to 400-600’
Flat load modified: hose laid in flat layers
progressing from left to right for each
layer never right to left.
expedited due to the fact that we could rely on
these great mentors.
If you are not already familiar, Oakland FD
utilizes a mix of pre-connects and bulk loads for
a “short VS long” approach to hose
deployments. Their pre-connected crosslays can
be deployed short and their rear bulk beds can
be deployed both short AND long.
The bulk load utilizes a simple but carefully
loaded flat load (modified - only left to right) to
fill out its bed and finishes it with a 50’
Oakland Fire Department (CA) Hosebed
By Firefighters, For Firefighters
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