Although you have completed Firefighter I training, your training and basic firefighter text do not cover many of the finer points of delivering safe and effective water flows to the fireground. Depending on your fire department’s policies, you may have gone through a long probation and training period before you became a pump operator; in other departments, you may join the department and swiftly transition to the driver’s seat. Some incorporate driving into basic firefighter training. But what does it take to be an operator and what surprises await the new engineer? The following are issues I have had to deal with as a pump operator for decades. The information presented here is not all-comprehensive and does not replace hands-on pump training.
Historically, you would have used a Vernier throttle to control engine output (engine speed), a simple controller knob on the pump panel that the operator would twist on to either increase or decrease the engine speed. The Vernier included a red button on the end that the operator could push in and rapidly drop the engine speed to idle. The Vernier throttle used old-school hardware and was directly connected to the engine’s carburetor or fuel management system and was replaced over time by an automatic pump pressure governor (APPG) with advanced features and electronic controls that essentially perform the same function as the legacy Vernier but with enhancements (photo 1). The principal one allows a pump operator to manage multiple lines and keep safe and manageable pressures across several discharges. Note that the concept of APPGs is not new—even the ancient engine I learned on had such a device; however, it was not electronic but instead relied on basic mechanical automotive technology to achieve the same results. Today’s new pump operator in a department with “modern apparatus” will hopefully be trained to master whatever APPG was specified for the apparatus. However, many departments are financially stressed and may purchase secondhand apparatus or be running equipment lovingly maintained but up in years and down on features. Familiarize yourself with whatever device your equipment uses and its unique features. Although they appear similar, each manufacturer’s APPG may have specific operational differences.
Pumping apparatus needs pressure regulating devices to manage the different pressures needed for multiple hoselines of different sizes. Instead of pumping for a single hoseline for a trash or car fire, we may be pumping and supplying multiple hoselines of various sizes for distinct purposes—handlines, master stream devices, and feeding a building fire department connection (FDC) for standpipes and sprinklers; each requires different pressures. If one line is shut down suddenly, the now-available pressure shunts to the other lines.
For example, if we have two handlines and are also supplying a portable monitor, if we shut down the monitor while the two handlines remain in operation, the flow and pressure for the monitor will continue even if the appliance is shut down. The water and pressure will now be delivered to the handlines, resulting in hose pressures greater than desired for those handlines and a potentially dangerous situation.
Pressure governors or the less complex relief valves (photo 2) provide a safety factor that will either dump pressure or adjust the apparatus engine speed to deal with the situation. Incidents with multiple lines in operation can easily overwhelm the single pump operator, and these devices provide a degree of safety. They will also boost pressure when additional lines are placed in service.
If operating in areas with numerous hydrants, don’t assume that all hydrants are the same. Experienced pump operators know this is hardly ever the case. Although the same water utility may serve a given geographic area, each of that utility’s hydrants may behave differently, depending on several factors. In my town, the town has owned the water utility for more than a century, but a generation ago, government action forced the utility to start buying water seasonally from a surrounding and larger (national) water utility. As a result, on the same street or across from one another, you may now encounter hydrants with different threads on the steamer (the largest connection on a given hydrant); the supplied water pressure from these neighboring hydrants could prove vastly different and as different as the utilities’ thread styles.
In photo 3, the hydrant in the distance (arrow) is on a municipal water system. The one in the foreground (arrow) is on a large regional utility system. These two hydrants are each connected to separate system mains that eventually connect at a junction (a valve) about a quarter mile away. Moreover, the municipal hydrant uses a National Standard steamer thread, while the large utility’s hydrant uses a unique legacy steamer thread. The road is the boundary of two towns and two fire departments. Depending on the department responding, it may need an adapter to connect to the hydrant used (photo 4). In the community’s older, inner core, one could encounter hydrants on supply mains as old as the utility itself. These more “urban” water mains are frequently plagued with sediment or other debris that can compromise full flow or whatever flow is available.
In photo 5, these two newly installed hydrants (arrows) are on the northwest corner in front of a newly constructed, large multifamily occupancy. They are connected to the same 12-inch main to facilitate connection options based on the direction of firefighter approach; neither is better than the other. Informed pump operators and mutual-aid personal should be aware of such hydrant system specifics.
Knowing the hydrant locations is a key to becoming a proficient operator. Before you can put that information to good use, you need to know the streets, period! This is another complication of a generation raised on handheld devices and commonplace geographic positioning systems (GPS). To my knowledge, no common commercial GPS units include hydrant/drafting locations or which hydrants/drafting locations are good.
Commonly, the supplying water utility should maintain the hydrants, including performing an annual flow test, and maintain a record of the results. It should also exercise or work the various caps and the stem valves while flushing the hydrant. Common practice is to complete these tasks annually, but there is no guarantee that all the tasks were indeed performed. In photo 6, a seized, unyielding hydrant steamer cap was discovered while the department was working at a heavily involved multifamily occupancy. Members attempting to use this hydrant used pure force on the cap and eventually battered the cap off to access the hydrant. This is not a good idea. When we remove the caps from a hydrant, we expose the hydrant threaded portion, called a nozzle, to which we connect our hoses. The hydrant nozzle typically has an unseen portion with threads that screw into the hydrant body; they are not forged with the body. Some manufacturers use a groove and cam locking system to connect the nozzle to the hydrant body. So, if you batter the hydrant cap to loosen or remove it, you may break the nozzle itself or knock it completely out of the hydrant body, rendering the hydrant completely unusable. In such a situation, it may well be preferable to instead use the two auxiliary nozzles on the right and left, fitting them with gate valves and using pony hose lengths of whatever size is available. Ultimately, regularly inspecting hydrants will avoid such situations.
Although it is uncommon for hydrants to be struck and damaged by automobiles, that damage can go unnoticed for months or even years. Also rare but not unheard of is malicious damage by a would-be arsonist who disables the hydrant before he commits his crime. There are documented cases where the primary steamer cap was overtightened or damaged such that no common hydrant wrench could remove it.
Many fireground activities—e.g., advancing a hoseline, raising a ladder, and opening a roof—are performed with two- or three-person crews. Operating a pump is not one of them. Except for driving to a call when an officer is in the right-hand seat, the driver is on his own and responsible for decisions on spotting the apparatus, selecting the water source, and deploying the hoseline.
The decision as to the type, size, and selection of hoses carried on your apparatus was made years, even decades, before you joined your department. Hose size and preference have varied over the years; the past 50 years or so has witnessed the increase in the variety of hose sizes. Historically, engines carried one size of hose, 2½ inch, for years. It was later joined by 1½ inch and the lowly ¾- to one-inch booster line. The engine I started out on was a 1,500-gpm unit, considered a “super-pumper” when it was purchased. As a result, the super capacity of a full three-inch supply line incorporating three-inch couplings was specified. In our modest five-engine fleet, one other engine was similarly equipped. Unfortunately, the other three 1,250-gpm engines ran only 2½-inch hose with 2½-inch couplings. This caused fireground headaches; each apparatus had quite a hose coupling adapter collection if we needed to mix and match hoses and coupling styles. The town directly to our north ran four-inch hose with Storz couplings; other mutual-aid companies in our area ran five-inch hose with Storz. All our FDCs remained dual 2½-inch couplings. FDCs on buildings are used to supply a building’s sprinkler system or a building’s internal standpipe from your engine. It is increasingly common to see standpipes and sprinkler systems fed by a single Storz hookup rather than by the traditional Siamese or dual 2½-inch hookups. Knowledge of your buildings in your response area is key to knowing what hookup connections are required.
In the mid 1990s, my department took the leap forward and moved to a true large-diameter hose (LDH) or five-inch supply hose; the unusual three-inch hose with three-inch couplings was replaced with three-inch hose with more common 2½-inch couplings. Out went most of the adapters, along with using 2½-or three-inch hose for a normal supply. Photo 7 shows the LDH on the right side of the hosebed and three-inch supply hose to the left. Our experience illustrates just how cumbersome managing hoses and hose connections can become. A challenging hookup situation can overwhelm the inadequately trained rookie pump operator.
Although more rural departments will frequently draft from natural water sources, my department was fortunate enough to have a wealth of hydrants, mostly delivering mediocre to poor fire flows. Like many departments, there was little thought to considering any alternative water supply. The town was also surrounded by a river, a brackish (low-salt) tidal basin. Although the river was completely accessible, it offered unique challenges. The river rose and dropped with the tide, somewhat mirroring the nearby Atlantic Ocean. However, common ocean tide charts do not necessarily reflect the river levels since the river rises and drops at its own rhythm. An engineer attempting a draft and setting up a hard sleeve (rigid suction) had to consider these steady and ever-changing tidal changes. The standard two lengths of typically 10-foot hard suction would rarely cut it unless it was full high tide.
You can draft from a water source in two ways: (1) directly by placing hard suction from the engine into a water source or (2) using prepositioned plumbing called a dry hydrant. Dry hydrants are designed and constructed in advance and are frequently left unused for extended periods. In my department, the dry hydrant in photo 8 is plumbed into a river that has active marine life and is used recreationally. This primary drafting location offers two methods of establishing a draft, the dry hydrant (arrow, left) drafting standpipe that is piped directly into the river, while the railing in the distance (arrow, right) has a gate through which you can maneuver two or more lengths of hard sleeve drafting hose directly from an engine into the river.
Although convenient, approach any drafting standpipe with caution and skepticism, since these are historically chronically clogged with debris and sediment and hence unreliable unless you know they are well maintained. One advantage of dry hydrants is that they typically require only one length of hard suction hose to set up the operation.
Since all my department’s apparatus are currently equipped with pumps from the same manufacturer, sharing hard sleeve suction hose has become trouble-free. Keep in mind that the height of the lift of the water will impact the ultimate delivery volume. The maximum amount of water can be delivered at the highest tide; as the tide recedes, the volume will become progressively less as the lift height increases.
In a centrifugal fire pump, the priming process withdraws all the atmospheric pressure and some water from the centrifugal pump chamber and the ridged suction hose. The primer pump, a small apparatus-mounted positive displacement pump, does this. Today, primers are often 12-volt electrical devices. In years past, they were mechanical or were powered by the engine’s vacuum or the exhaust. Primer pump trouble spots include checking priming oil if yours uses oil. Vacuum leaks anywhere in the system are almost always the biggest problem in obtaining a draft. These leaks can frequently be found at the hard sleeve connection points but are not limited to them. Any vacuum leak causes havoc. It can’t be ignored as inconsequential; a new operator must understand that you can’t draft with a persistent vacuum leak.
Water supply at draft can be difficult to grasp, but basic atmospherics, not raw horsepower, get the water initially moving. The water you are drafting is forced up the ridged sleeve (as they were once called) and into the pump’s impeller by the normal atmospheric pressure. Hence, when activating the primer, we are creating a low-pressure area within the pump; this pressure or lack of it is what we call a vacuum. Once the atmosphere acts on the body of water, the water will be forced up the hard suction and into the pump’s impeller; the centrifugal pump does the rest. However, an atmospheric leak at any point between the water source and the pump housing will spoil the entire process.
It is also important to maintain a constant flow as soon as the draft is initiated, even if there is no call for water at the fire scene, the water flow must remain constantly flowing to some extent, which you can accomplish by recirculating the water or even running a small, 1½-inch secured handline and directing the flow back into the source (a river, creek, stream, or pool).
The river surrounding my response area is considered brackish because the freshwater flows from inland areas into tidal basins that contain a degree of sea water with high ocean salt levels. Local misunderstandings can lead to controversies within the department. Although not prevalent when I started, the belief slowly spread through the department that the salty river water was an imminent threat to our equipment’s service life. In truth, any source of drafting water, especially from natural bodies of water, can contain a variety of materials from plant life to sediment to the aforementioned saltwater, all of which are not pump friendly.
Note that whenever drafting from a natural water source—a stream, creek, river, or bay—the pump and valves must be completely flushed from a reliable and clean water supply such as a hydrant. This way, you can neutralize the river water just by flushing the apparatus completely and flowing all the valves and connections from a clean fresh water source, although it is time consuming. Flushing does no harm and exercises all the associated hardware; unused and unexercised control valves will rust with any type of water.
Most commonly, pumping apparatus will be equipped with two large master gauges (photo 9) and several smaller gauges. The one master gauge shows the incoming water supply; the second shows the outgoing water from your pump under pressure. What can cause catastrophic damage to your pump is a condition in which you are connected to a hydrant and thus a pressurized source vs. drafting. Pump operators are cautioned to maintain a “residual” pressure. For example, if you are on a hydrant, connected with the hydrant fully open, and no water is flowing from your discharges, your static incoming pressure is 70 pounds per square inch (psi) on your master gauge. You start to stretch lines and place them in service for firefighting. With the first line in operation, you note that your incoming pressure has dropped in half to 35 psi. As you place a second and third line in service, you are surprised to see your incoming pressure has dropped to five psi. You have just discovered the limitation of the hydrant you are connected to. In this case, the hydrant is not particularly good, since it is not supplying a great deal of water supply volume. Unfortunately, in firefighting and pumping, you have to “go into battle with the army you have.” Bad hydrant or not, it is the hydrant you will be working with. However, exercise caution: A residual pressure of just five psi is less than recommended. The concern is that with a slight variation in output or supply, your residual could drop to zero or even less (negative numbers); in effect, you could be “drafting” from a pressurized source. This will result in cavitation, in which your pump has, in effect, “run away” from its water source—i.e., the engine speed will increase as output drops. Cavitation is literally small water and exploding air bubbles; these explosions will quite literally destroy a centrifugal pump.
This is why you need to know not only your hydrants but the water supply situation (the water main grid, supply main sizes, and alternative drafting options) in your response area. In the above example, in my response area I may well have another hydrant within a few hundred feet stretch that may outperform a given hydrant that is on an old undersized water main, but I would only know this if I had invested in learning the system. In older urban areas, legacy water mains may well be less than eight inches in diameter and clogged with decades of sediment. Likewise, once I connect to any hydrant, I am, in effect, married to that hydrant for the duration of the operation since there is no easy way to simply relocate the engine, supply hoses, and discharge lines.
Many emergency providers are often victims to driving mishaps far more frequently than we care to admit to as a community. Although the uninitiated may think the predominant firefighter injuries are burns and smoke inhalation, these are far rarer. Typically, from year to year, the leading cause of line-of-duty firefighter deaths is cardiac (heart) issues, almost always followed closely by driving mishaps, and then being struck by passing motorists at emergency scenes on highways and surface streets.
Safe driving practices and thoughtful apparatus roadway placement can overcome the above situations. An overriding rule of all emergency driving is that by failing to arrive at your original emergency by creating your own mishap—a fender bender or collision resulting in injury—you have failed in your mission. Apparatus operators must always be keenly aware they are driving a huge rolling billboard for your department. Your driving—good, bad, or indifferent—can impress your citizens positively or negatively. The motorist you run off the road may well have been one of your biggest supporters. Emergency driving rules vary by state. Before you turn your first wheel operating an engine, become familiar with your local and state rules.
Even if pump operators are wearing department-issued turnout gear, they are required to wear reflective high-visibility vests that meet ANSI 107 class 3, type P for public safety personnel. As a pump operator, regardless of whether you have a top-mount or the more common side pump panel, you will be operating on the pavement at some point, stretching lines or gathering equipment. In your haste to accomplish various tasks, you will most likely not be focused on the surrounding motor vehicle traffic, which will place you at risk for being struck.
As you approach a fire scene, the chauffeur has many decisions to make—and make quickly. Other than the ultimate decision on apparatus placement, another critical one is whether to drop a supply line or go forward with an attack with the onboard tank water (the water we carry with us). A mistake in this regard can break the entire firefight and may place firefighters in jeopardy if a steady supply of water is lost during the operation. Let’s look at the possibilities.
Formerly, the standard size booster tank on an engine was 500 gallons; in recent years, a 700- or 750-gallon booster tank is becoming the norm. With the larger tanks has come the belief that the additional 200 to 250 gallons of onboard water reduces the urgency to “catch a plug” or connect to a hydrant. The unspoken aspect of this is to skip the time-consuming and unpleasant task of picking up supply hose after the fire. Of course, dropping a supply line only to find out that the supply was unneeded can cause a great deal of unreasonable complaining by firefighters after the fact.
The quick answer is that the chief officer running the operation should decide this based on his scene size-up, which assumes that a chief or officer will arrive prior to the first-due engine. Increasingly, especially with volunteer departments, staffing is at a premium; counting on an officer to arrive first is a dicey proposition. Without more experienced command staff on scene, the decision regarding dropping a supply line will fall on the company officer/chauffeur (as well as department SOPs). Coming into the scene and passing up a hydrant only to discover the fire is larger than anticipated is almost certainly a critical error—one that can be corrected but only with a great deal of effort, personnel, and time.
The experienced pump operator will most likely calculate the entire scene makeup while driving to the scene and keying in all the factors. In short, it’s far better to drop a supply line and not need it than rely on onboard tank water only to find out within minutes of placing the first line in service that the tank is rapidly draining and no additional engines are en route to bail you and the firefighting crew out of the predicament.
Keep in mind that a single 2½-inch handline can flow as much as 250 gallons per minute, meaning you will exhaust the 500-gallon tank in two minutes; a 700- or 750-gallon tank will give you an additional minute. Traditionally, the booster water was only intended to provide “instant” water on arrival and provide the two-minute bridge to the established water supply from a hydrant. Although it’s completely reasonable to fight an automobile fire with booster tank water, large truck fires and virtually any structure fire can without a doubt cause you to completely drain the onboard supply.
Another decision outside of your control as a new operator will be the available supply options. In years past, a supply line meant single or double 2½-inch lines. Over the years, many departments recognized the limitations of these smaller lines and transitioned to ever-increasing supply line options. Three-inch and then 3½-inch lines were accepted and later displaced by LDH, four- and five-inch supply lines. Along with the new LDH hose, many departments chose to keep the former three-inch hose in the engine’s hosebed, sitting right next to the bed of LDH. In this setup, you now have the options of a smaller (and limited three-inch) along with the LDH. In this scenario, once more, it may well fall on the officer/chauffeur to make the decision.
Whether it’s a three-inch or an LDH, departments approach the attachment to the hydrant in a variety of fashions. Many have the supply line attached to a four-way valve or hydrant assist valve. The four-way valve adds little to the complexity of connecting but adds the flexibility of uninterrupted water flow if a second apparatus is coming in behind the first-due engine and pumping the hydrant and boosting the supply pressure. In this scenario, the second-arriving engine can proceed directly to the original hydrant and seamlessly make the connection and boost the first engine’s supply without interrupting the water supply flow.
As it moves water through hose, the water itself develops friction that slows down the flow, which is also inhibited by any internal impediments in the hose; any valves, wyes, and master stream bases; and the fire apparatus piping. The water you are flowing will lose valuable pressure by the time it reaches the end of the nozzle tip.
Friction loss comes down to four basic rules.
Although these rules may seem lofty and academic to the new pump operator, they affect our fire stream operations and must be considered.
Rule 1 is the most obvious on the fireground; the longer the hoseline stretched, the greater the friction loss. If you were pumping 100 feet of 1¾-inch hose on discharge one on your pump panel while also supplying another 300 feet of 1¾-inch line on discharge two, and you set the same 125-psi discharge pressure for both lines, then the shorter line will have an adequate fire stream; the longer line will not.
Depending on your department’s setup, you may be simultaneously pumping a one-inch booster or forestry line all the way up to five-inch LDH. Per Rule 3 above, the hose size is significant in calculating friction loss. I will not go into the math involved in calculating friction, but as the new pump operator, you should fully investigate the topic as you gain experience. In the meantime, rely on your more experienced officers and seasoned pump operators for guidance. Many departments have streamlined the process by developing in-house “cheat sheets” (photo 10) that offer a rapid and mathematical shortcut to setting pump pressures. However, whatever you do, do not ignore the topic of friction loss; it affects your fireground operations and effective water application.
Operating and pumping fire apparatus are an involved, multistep process requiring a wealth of background knowledge on a variety of topics. You will not master them completely after reading one article or textbook or attending a single course of instruction.
Douglas Haviland is a 40-year member of the Red Bank (NJ) Fire Department and a past department chief. He is an instructor with the Mercer County (NJ) Fire Academy, the Middletown Township (NJ) Fire Academy, and the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety’s Continuing Education Courses.