Preconnected Hoselines
Firefighting has certainly changed over the past 50 years. My father, who retired in 1975, remembers that when he first joined the department in 1952, all initial attack lines on the “pumpers” were 212-inch lines with smooth-bore nozzles. They had 112-inch “trash lines” (as they called them), but almost everything they did was with 212-inch hose.
When I joined the fire service in 1975, all engines in Toledo were equipped with two 112- and one 212-inch preconnect attack lines. In the late 1980s, many departments (including Toledo) experimented with 134-inch hoselines. These lines were described as the replacement for 112- and 212-inch hose. It was said that they provided the water power of a 212-inch line with the maneuverability of a 112-inch line. In Toledo, we have eliminated 112-inch hose from all first-line apparatus. That leads me to this month`s question ….
— Roundtable Moderator John (Skip) Coleman, deputy chief of operations, Toledo (OH) Department of Fire and Rescue; author of Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer (Fire Engineering, 1997); editorial advisory board member of Fire Engineering; and member of the FDIC Educational Committee.
Question: Does your department use 134-inch hose, and how well do you believe it is working? Do you still carry (and use) 112- and 212-inch hose as standard preconnect attack lines?
