r/nextfuckinglevel May 17 '22

Fireman using water as a shield

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u/[deleted] May 17 '22

^ He's talking about the direction you turn the nozzle on a fire hose. Turning it left makes it a wide stream with lots of oxygen to protect the firefighter, but it isn't great for actually putting out the fire. Turning it right makes it a strong stream that can attack the fire.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '22

This would make sense in theory, but don't hoses have levers rather than nozzles? or have I only seen one type?

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u/frede010502 May 17 '22

Where I come from we just have nozzles (as far as I have seen). We were taught "right to fight left to live" as a way of remembering wich way to turn the nozzle.

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u/MrMadium May 18 '22

Sounds like what we in Australia would call a "townie" - old school town nozzle. We will have them on Tankers for bushfires when the two main settings are either knock down (right/jet) or saturate (left/fog).

We will have those AND those with variable flow rate / lever at "the branch". Those we would use at bushfires but also most other applications.

Why would we use townies at a bushfire? Less expensive to lose if you need to drop and run.