Long Attack Lines

A common weakness made by engine companies is reliance on the 150’ to 200’ pre-connected hose line for every stretch.  What happens when the fire is out of the reach of that largely relied upon pre-connect?  Do you have an attack line dedicated for a long stretch?  Do you at a minimum have a plan to quickly configure a long attack line?  The development of a long attack line is essential to the arsenal for every engine company.  The long attack line comes in many different configurations and is given many different names.  For example most fire departments in the DC Metro area run a 400’ or longer pre-connected 1 ½” or 1 ¾” as a dedicated long attack line.

DC Metro Style 400' Pre-Connect 

When I started with my current agency, we did not have a dedicated or consistent plan for deploying a long attack line.  We relied on the creativity of the company officers and firefighters on the street to execute a plan when faced with a long stretch.  After a bit of trial, error, education and convincing of the powers, our“engine nerds” developed a load that would serve as a dedicated long attack line. We coined it the “Apartment Load.“  The line consisted of 500’ of 2 1/2” hose flat loaded with a gated wye attached to a 100’ of 1 ¾” hose bundled in a coil configuration.  This configuration has served us well but  provided some operational drawbacks.  We experienced consistent issues with the gated wye becoming lodged inside the hose bed during deployment. During operation we frequently dealt with the valves becoming inadvertently open or shut. On a recent commercial structure fire a valve was shut off while crews were operating.  This configuration also does not lend itself to quickly shoulder any hose past the 100’ of bundled 1 3/4”. 

Original Apartment Load

Original Apartment Load with manual shoulder loading

After some mindful evaluation of the original set up our motivated “engine nerds” proposed some upgrades to our “Apartment Load.”  The first upgrade is to eliminate the gated wye and replace it with a bell reducer.  The elimination of the wye eliminates the mechanical issues we were experiencing. The removal of the wye also eliminates hydraulic issues that were occurring when attempting to operate two lines off that appliance. We learned about the issues with gated wyes and as it relates to hydraulics after reading information provided by Dennis LeGear from LeGear Engineering FD Consulting.  (LeGear Engineering has a wealth of information regarding hose, nozzles and water delivery They can be found on Facebook or at hydrant2nozzle.com).  The next upgrade was configuring the last 100’ of 2 ½” hose in a minuteman shoulder load along with the 100’ bundle of 1 ¾” attack.  This provides us with 200’ of line that can be quickly shouldered and deployed.

The Upgraded Apartment Load

The evolution and development of our long attack line is not the answer for every fire department. Develop a line that suits the needs of your staffing model and jurisdiction. It is also important to have more than one method for running a long attack lines off your engine.  Think outside the box. You will surprise yourself with the options that your engine can provide you. Regardless of the configuration of your long attack line it is important that you drill with your companies on how to effectively and efficiently deploy your configuration.  Take a look at your engine and see if your current line and/or plan for a long attack line is meeting your needs.  I hope this sparks some conversation.  Please respond on Facebook tell us about your method for a long attack line.

As always BE SMART!