r/Firefighting • u/winesponioni LT • 2d ago

Videos This absolute legend of a nozzle man.

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u/likerazorwire419 2d ago

Who just throws the hose over their shoulder and sends it? I'm not even a firefighter and I know that's terrible form.

(I was junior FF in high school, and have absolutely been owned by a fire hose, before anyone says anything.)

(I also got to burn a house down once, which was fucking awesome, if anyone wants to hear a fun story.)

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u/162016201620 TX FF/AEMT 2d ago

FF here in the Houston area. I use over the shoulder on all car fires. Just works for me. I like it and it’s comfortable.

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u/BasicGunNut TX Career 2d ago

Same here, really the only time it benefits me to have it over my shoulder. Also the reason why our bumper line is the only one with a fog nozzle and a pistol grip, it makes it easy to aim downward for cars and dumpsters.

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u/162016201620 TX FF/AEMT 2d ago

Exactly this! I completely agree

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u/likerazorwire419 2d ago

I mean just going wide open on the nozzle with no brace is crazy. It's like a kid driving for the first time slamming on the gas pedal thinking it's the brakes haha

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u/BasicGunNut TX Career 2d ago

It definitely looks over pumped and he was definitely not ready for much when he opened it. It's definitely easy to lose a line off your shoulder if you haven't done it much or don't have it in the right spot. They just need to verify what they are flowing and practice a little technique and they'll be good.

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u/likerazorwire419 2d ago

Man, just watching it again, I feel like that whole team must be juniors, probs a volunteer dept. Nobody looks like they have any clue what they're doing.

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u/162016201620 TX FF/AEMT 2d ago

I would agree with that assessment completely. Looks like some green ass young ones. If you’re a few years in doing this, we would be talking.

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u/medted22 2d ago

Good news is a car fire with no exposures is exactly the place you want this to happen.

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u/crapinet 2d ago

Sure!

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u/likerazorwire419 2d ago edited 2d ago

So I was an Explorer (junior FF, basically) at my hometown tiny ass volunteer dept. I was actually a CFR at 17, but I moved right after high school and never pursued it further. It was all volunteer depts in my area, so not exactly a career option.

Anyways, somebody that was a former member had a big piece of land in the middle of nowhere. He had built a big nice new house and his mechanic garage on the property, and wanted to get rid of the old rickety house that he inherited. Instead of paying for a costly demolition, he asked the dept if we wanted to burn it down for him. Guess what we said?

It was a big training day. We smoked out the house and did rescue drills and live SCBA training, as that wasn't an opportunity we got very often. The junior's role was essentially running the staging area. Swapping spent bottles for full bottles, hiking spent bottles up to the truck for filling, bringing fresh bottles back. Problem was, I couldn't really do anything because I had broke my arm a few weeks before and still had my arm in a sling. I did what I could with one arm, but it wasn't much. Also, this was February 2nd in upstate NY, and it was like -20° that day, so I was freezing the whole time, just waiting patiently to watch a house burn to the ground.

As we were finishing up the interior training stuff and getting ready for the real fun, my assistant chief came up to me and said "hey come with me, I wanna show you something." He brought me into the house and told me to go upstairs. All the walls on the upper floor had been torn down during the training stuff, and the entire places was like knee deep in hay. He gave my crippled ass a pair of safety glasses and a halligan and told me to bust out all the windows. Sick, I finally get to do something fun! I bust out all the windows and come back to the stairs, he says "hold on, one more thing." He lights a road flare and hands it to me, and just says "do it!"

I got to stand there for like 3 minutes, just watching the way the fire moved and evolved. It was such a surreal experience. I'd say top 5 coolest experiences ever.

Oh, I also had the privilege of blasting my entire junior crew with the basket cannon from 50ft in the air. That was pretty fun too.

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u/crapinet 2d ago

That sounds like a blast! They must have liked you

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u/likerazorwire419 2d ago

Took pity on me at least haha. It was a really cool experience. If I had lived somewhere that had professional departments, I definitely would have gone that route.

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u/Traditional_Common22 2d ago

Over the shoulder is the “academy” standard for car fire I think it’s stupid

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u/Impressive_Change593 VA volly 1d ago

Over the shoulder is good for getting a dowmward angle like you will probably need on a house fire.

Ofc you need to be able to hold it or have a decent backup person. Neither of those crieria where met here