Hose manufacturers have introduced a variety of sizes for handlines. Fire departments no longer have to go from 1¾-inch line to 2½-inch line with nothing in between. For this month’s Viewpoints question, we focused on 2-inch line and asked Bill Adams and Ricky Riley, “Should the fire service move toward 2-inch hoselines as primary attack lines?”
Two-Inch Handlines? There Is No Correct Answer
By Bill Adams
There are far too many variables and unknowns for me to answer this question objectively. Both proponents and opponents of 2-inch hose can substantiate their responses with vague statements. Facts and figures can be discreetly manipulated to achieve desired outcomes. Not disclosing potential negative factors can skew the decision-making process. There is no accusation of nefariousness or claim that questioners and respondents might have personal agendas. Making a firefighter’s job easier and safer is to be commended, and firefighter safety is priority one.
Disclaimer: My initiation in “initial fire attack” was during the era of 30-gpm booster lines, 1½-inch hose with Rockwood navy-style 60-gpm nozzles, and the old standby 250-gpm 2½-inch handline with a playpipe and straight tip. I was brought kicking and screaming through the times of fixed- and variable-gallonage fog nozzles, automatic nozzles, and 1¾-inch hose. I never used 2-inch hose but did address it in 2018 (bit.ly/3ECuNN4). I don’t think much has changed since then.
My unorthodox response to this question is in the format of presenting the questions an authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) might ask a fire chief who is making a proposal to purchase 2-inch fire hose. These questions are particular to a fictitious fire department. They could be applicable to many others. AHJs’ members could be former fire chiefs and veteran firefighters—a potential nightmarish scenario for current chiefs. Do your homework.
AHJ Member #1: So, you want us to buy all new 2-inch attack line hose? Your presentation said 2-inch flows more water at lower pressures than the 1¾-inch presently used, and it also takes the place of a 2½-inch backup line. Let me ask you some questions: How many gallons per minute do our current attack lines flow? How many gallons per minute will the proposed 2-inch hose flow? Who determines what flow is necessary for an attack line—you or the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)? How many gallons per minute do our current 2½-inch backup lines flow? How many gallons per minute will the proposed 2-inch hose flow when used as a backup line? Who determines what flow is necessary for our backup lines—you or the NFPA?
AHJ Member #2: You said the department tested the proposed new hose. The last time we changed hose sizes, the flow tests were conducted in the parking lot in ideal conditions. This time, was the testing done in a more realistic scenario and not on drill night with a gang of people on the pumper? I’m talking like a daytime run where there are only three or four firefighters on the load. Did a couple people pull it, stretch it, charge it, make entry in a front door, make a turn, go up a flight of stairs, turn down a hallway, and enter a room? How much of a difference was there in the handling characteristics of the new stuff and what we have now?
AHJ Member #3: Were the flows actually calibrated, or were they theoretical estimates from a friction loss chart? Also, did you test the 2-inch hose with both 1½-inch couplings and 2½-inch couplings? And, are you looking at 50-foot or 75-foot hose lengths?
AHJ Member #4: Your proposal says you want 2-inch hose for the new rig we’re buying and to replace the attack lines on all our pumpers. Will the piping to the preconnects on the existing rigs support the increased flows you’re expecting out of the new hose? Did you test them? The piping runs to our dual 1½-inch discharges on the rear panels are pretty long, and there’s a bunch of elbows in them. Will you have to pump a higher engine pressure to the rear discharges than to the crosslays?
AHJ Member #5: Years ago when we bought automatic nozzles, we were told to pump 200 pounds per square inch into them and, if necessary, the nozzleman could reduce the flow with the nozzle’s bail. Some of the older drivers hesitated on pumping high pressures into handlines. If you didn’t watch them, they kept cutting back. What pressures do you intend to pump into the new hose? And, will this 2-inch hose be replacing all our existing 2½-inch handlines?
AHJ Member #4: A few years back, you line officers wanted all straight tips on our preconnects. Today some of you want to go back to fog nozzles on half the preconnects. Will we have to pump different engine pressures for straight tips and fog nozzles? Today’s pump operators usually set the governor for one pressure and seldom change it.
AHJ Member #3: Is this new hose something our department really needs or is it something you want just because our neighbors have it? And, who said our fireground flows are insufficient? Have you done a “needs assessment” on the hose?
AHJ Member #2: A major concern I have is our existing hosebeds are packed super tight. We have single-stacked preconnect beds where you can hardly pull the hose out. The newer rigs have slide-out trays that’re packed just as tight. Have you actually tried loading this 2-inch on our apparatus? You might have to revise all our hosebeds. Have you considered you might have to change the preconnects’ lengths and methods of deploying them?
AHJ Member #1: Maybe you ought to come back and tell us how you’re actually going to use the hose, with what nozzles, and at what pump pressures. You line officers have to be on the same page. We don’t want you coming back in a year saying we need to buy different nozzles or we have to change tip sizes on what we own now.
Merely stating 2-inch hose flows more water at lower pressures, weighs less, and is easier to handle than a deuce-and-a-half might not necessarily make life easier for the one or two firefighters who are humping that initial attack line through the front door up to the second floor. Each fire department should make the decision whether it should move toward 2-inch hose based on its own response district.
BILL ADAMS is a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board, a former fire apparatus salesman, and a past chief of the East Rochester (NY) Fire Department. He has 50 years of experience in the volunteer fire service.
Two-Inch Lines As Primary Attack Lines—You Do You
By Ricky Riley
We are always given challenging questions to get us to make a statement on the fire service and how we all operate. They are great questions that you hear when discussions of hose, hosebeds, and nozzles come up in firehouses where the crews and the leadership take service delivery and quality seriously. There will always be questions about the best hose, the best hose load, the best deployment of that hose, and what is available to make the job better. And in making the job better, is there a way to provide fire suppression through a model that is better than we are doing now? In this new model, what are the components to make that delivery better than what we are using now or better than what is proven through years of work on our firegrounds?
One of the new/not so new items is 2-inch hose. While a lot of people see this as new technology and a new way of delivering water, it has actually been around for a long time. I recall using 2-inch lines in the early 1980s in some of the busy departments in Maryland where I was fortunate enough to experience some good fire duty. Now this hose was, of course, said to deliver a higher volume of water to help extinguish those fires. But, I am quite sure that the nozzle technology was not there to produce the volume that the lines were capable of because most of these 2-inch lines were coupled with variable fog nozzles or even some fixed-gallonage fog nozzles. Using a smooth bore nozzle on these lines was few and far between. While the hose manufacturers did claim to deliver more water, they also were bigger lines than the standard 1½-inch line. And with that bigger line came the challenges of maneuverability and the ability to make some tight corners. Although I was not a pump operator in those days, it sure seemed like they were overpumped and made for very rigid and difficult lines to manage.
Today’s fire service has been fortunate enough to see the hose manufacturers deliver us a high-quality design and woven 2-inch attack lines. Based on the manufacturers’ chosen process, these lines can deliver high volumes of water coupled with lower friction loss from past versions. While all these 2-inch attack line iterations are great for us, we have to remember that they must be coupled with nozzles that will deliver the flow desired by individual departments and that the coupled hose and nozzle must perform for your geographic area, staffing model, and buildings. In recent years, the amount of attention paid to water delivery has exponentially grown across the fire service as both hose and nozzle manufacturers have dedicated staffs to go out and assist departments with flow testing both products. This helps them see hose and nozzle flow capabilities and ensures they see the differences between and abilities of each product and how they work together to provide for the needs of that community.
One of the nuances that has come from all this testing is an understanding of the piping friction loss on our apparatus. One of the unique things we found during our own department testing was the difference in each rig based on how the piping was run and how it fit in the totality of the engine design. Because based on pump house size and hosebed designs, there can be a high number of bends and angles in that piping before it gets to the final delivery point. I am sure our department is not unique when it comes to our thought process for engine company designs, so ours is not a unique problem and should be explored by all departments as a part of the overall water delivery process. Our own testing provided us with the realization that all the friction loss math we had learned throughout our careers may not fit the products that are on the market today. No matter how hard we tried, we could not get our pump pressure, pump friction loss, hose friction loss, and nozzle pressures to fit into a nice and neat friction loss math model for all of us to easily figure out. We went from math to a fixed pump pressure that we know would deliver the correct flow mandated by the department standard operating procedure. And while it was different, what we learned is that it does provide the correct water volume at the end of the chosen nozzle.
So, this all comes back to how the 2-inch line fits into our fire service. And, unfortunately, it all comes down to “You do you.” This new technology provides departments with an intermediate line that can flow more than a 1¾-inch and a little less than a 2½-inch. This might fit into a department’s staffing model and water flow needs very easily. It still is a bigger line than the normal 1½-inch and 1¾-inch and may be challenging to move in certain buildings and structures. Departments need to take that into account, but it is certainly a little more maneuverable than the 2½-inch line. There are myriad techniques, both old and new, that can help you properly move and flow a 2-inch line—or any size line for that matter. And, that comes with an investment in training and the training that fits your stream and flow delivery. How big city departments deploy and operate these big lines is different than small and medium size departments. That doesn’t mean that we should flow less water just because we are not the big city. But, you should make every effort to use technology, training, and ingenuity to pick the right line, the right nozzle, and the right staffing for the building stock in your response area and those outside your area.
These new hose designs and nozzles are a good thing for the fire service. We just have to take the time to look, train, and flow these packages. Just calculating them on paper is not good enough anymore. They must be proven in the field using the proper gauges and metering to ensure you get the right flows. So yes, the 2-inch line has a place in our fire service, and I am impressed with its flow and maneuverability. But, it came with education and thinking outside the box to see how it fit in our department. I urge you to do the same.
RICKY RILEY is the president of Traditions Training, LLC. He previously served as the operations chief for Clearwater (FL) Fire & Rescue and as a firefighter for Fairfax County (VA) Fire & Rescue. He also is a firefighter with the Kentland (MD) Volunteer Fire Department and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board.
