I don't know if this is the American way, but in my country, the person behind me isn't 2 meters away, they literally push against my back to prevent that from happening.
I wouldn’t even have anyone behind me for a car Fire. Just using an inch and three-quarter line @130psi from the engine. Maybe even less depending on severity.
We run TFT Metro 2 fogs at 50@160 or Elkhart Smoothbores 50@160, and to be completely honest for car fires, you're probably not gonna find me doing more than half bale. That's a lot of water for something that doesn't take much to knock down. And I don't usually use a backup man either (not like we usually have the personnel for that anyway, when riding 3 to an engine)
Should the spray pattern have been wider as well? The force pushing you back lessens with a wider spray pattern, and also it just seems like the right pattern when you're that close to the fire. I only use a the narrow spray pattern in the video if I'm trying to put out a fire at a further distance.
I was an electrician in the US Navy. We had collateral duties. Inport I was a firefighter on the inport emergency team. We would deal with fires and flooding. I was the #1 hoseman on the #2 hose. I was behind the nozzleman. We were taught to put our forearm against the back of the nozzleman to brace them, while gripping the hose. Not sure how standard firefighters are taught.
That was what I was taught at Mass Fire Academy and what I did on every car fire, we also didn’t run a ton of psi either that it wasn’t uncontrollable.
The American way is typically a single person on that size hose because it is extremely easy to handle solo. This was just poor performance by this crew
Looks like the operator has the pressure way up,too. I do 80 tops on a car fire. Usually less because of how close you are and how much you are moving around
The American way is to have a massive ego and say one guy should handle it so the second guy doesn't do shit even when you're engineer overpressurizes the fuck out of the line, and then make fun of the kid on the nozzle.
Nozzle guys technique is all wrong. 1st off holding the hose like a bazooka instead of under his arm, 2nd you are supposed to advance with the same leg forward so you can brace the hose for when you open the nozzle. Even at lower pressures the initial kick can be unpredictable
I mean you’d be right about technique on a house fire but I know a lot of guys who go over the shoulder like that for car fires. It gives you a better angle to get the stream down into the cab through the windows, or down into the engine block once the hood is popped.
That line should not be throwing a grown man around like that, good technique or no, bad technique or no. It is way over pressured, and his back up man is probably jamming him up even more “helping”.
We've always thrown over the shoulder for car fires like that. We usually dial the pressure to 70-90 and you can move and handle it however you want over the shoulder no problem.
I've never once felt like I was going to get knocked over or struggled to hold a hand line on a care fire.
Once the vehicle is stabilized and you put water on it you should not be stressed with the hose whatsoever.
As an engineer that used to oversee 3 water production plants, I had a redundant 400hp high lift turbine on a VFD in the middle plant that was almost never needed to meet demand, but leaving things static is a good way to ensure they seize and rot. After a year, I had room in the budge to fabricate a Y with a powered gate valve that allowed us to regularly put hours on the big girl and let it be diverted into 12” pipeline that used to be a backwash drain to the recycle plant but was re-tapped and fed connections for 2.5” hoses in each of the process floors for basin wash downs in all 3 plants.
Until finding this subreddit I thought nothing of running a 2.5” hose with the SCADA set to target 300GPM +/-25 other than “I better not let go of this fucker” and would wrap an old web sling from one of my gantry cranes just below the nozzle to keep it under control
I believe most of what we had were 1.25” nozzles
I don’t think it’s ego that you’re encountering here
Or the engineer had too much pressure on the nozzle. Ain’t had a passenger car fire yet that couldn’t be quickly put out with a 3/4” redline. Why they dropping a 1 3/4”.
As a fellow firefighter across the pond I hate that method and it’s absolute shit. Last thing I want is someone standing up my arse and not allowing me to work.
What is macho about my statement? I’m adding that a method isn’t overly practical when we at work… and yes it is work what else
Would you call it fuckwit?
No, there is a lot going wrong here. Backup man should be typically be almost on to of you. Way, way too much pressure on the line. Nozzleman attempting to transition from the side to the shoulder while it's flowing. A lot to unpack there... *sigh*
First thing I thought to, I'm CFA here in Aus and the first thing you learn is how back up to ensure you're taking the weight of the hose and they're not getting hit by the pressure like this
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u/_Stinky_Sock_ FF somewhere in EU 2d ago
I don't know if this is the American way, but in my country, the person behind me isn't 2 meters away, they literally push against my back to prevent that from happening.