Firefighters master hose technique
If a fire threatens to consume your home then local firefighters may just have found a way to put it out quicker.
Firefighters from across the county practised a new method of manoeuvring a hose through confined spaces that saves on both time and their personal air supply, at the Michelin buildings south of Pictou on Saturday.
This involves one firefighter breaking ahead with the hosepipe toward the blaze while his or her partner feeds the line from a pinch point, which may be encountered if, for example, fire crews were battling a blaze in an indoor passageway.
This is done while water is in the hoses.
“Then you can deploy your water more effectively,” said Pictou’s fire chief Paul Janes.
His department was joined by crews from Alma, Caribou, Plymouth and Stellarton, while their instructors hailed from Moncton and Dieppe.
Under the traditional method, two firefighters carrying a hose toward a structure blaze move back to back and will have to turn left or right when encountering a pinch point such as a corridor corner.
“Your hose would be stuck onto the end and it would be a lot more energy for those firefighters to advance that hose line,” Janes told The News.
To better simulate indoor conditions, a wooden obstacle course including makeshift walls were set up in a Michelin carpark, through which fire crews had to carry and deploy hoses running from a fire truck.
Once the hose lines were set up with help from instructors, one member of each duo moved ahead and kneeled down before spraying the ground in front of them with water. The final aim is to move the hose as close as possible to the base of any fire.
Firefighters trained using hose nozzles measuring 1.5 and 2.75 inches.