Fire Engines Photos

Interesting to see a preconnected attack line on a British pump. These are universal in North America and very useful. They can be got to work very quickly using the tank supply and can deal with most one room fires and car fires, where the hosereels will not get the job done. The usual practice here is to have two 200 to 250 foot long 1.75 inch lines. This one looks to be only around 50 feet (15 meters), which would seem to be a bit limiting on how it can be deployed.

Added by Rob Johnson on 24 June 2011.

Rob, I don't think this would be normal SOP (standard operational procedure), probably placed there to get to work very quickly for a demo at the show. I can remember when I was at Kununurra in the far north of Western Australia, at an airport emergency we would adopt the same procedure on our front-mounted pump but with the FB5X foam making branch attached, to enable us to get to work very quickly if the worst occurred. We had a very limited supply of tank water and no hydrants on the runway.

Added by Pavel on 25 June 2011.

We used to have flaked hose in our rear mounted Dual Purpose Tenders for quick deployment with 10x FMB.

Added by Bobe on 25 June 2011.

A 75ft. flaked length of 45mm hose and branch was standard stowage on most Cheshire County Fire Brigade appliances in the 1960s so what is depicted here is authentic for the period.

Added by Dusty on 25 June 2011.

This was also common on Lancashire County appliances and was carried on Merseyside appliances and as far as I know is still the practice.

Added by Dave Price on 26 June 2011.

We had 2 lengths of flaked 45mm hose on our Volvos/ Mercs with Clwyd too.

Added by Gary Simpson on 26 June 2011.

Often the flaked 1 3/4" would be carried in an old bread tray with a branch attached. I have seen them in a wooden holder as well.

Added by Neal Glover on 26 June 2011.

I can confirm the Stowage point for the 75ft/45mm hose on the rear is original after a minor cut and refix repair to the original leather belt buckle and revarnish to the wooden base a suitable length and branch was added

Added by Gavin Hall on 27 June 2011.

Has anyone any comments about how useful these were? It seems they are still pretty rare in the UK, but unhooking the "crosslays" has become by far the most common first attack procedure here.

Added by Rob Johnson on 14 July 2011.

Humberside for mamy years ran with two 'flaked lengths ' of 45mm in the pump locker - partially superseded when high pressure hosereels became 'the norm'

Added by Rick Loudon on 14 July 2011.

45mm flaked hose with 20mm diameter nozzles were already in use in Cheshire when I transferred there in 1969 and I introduced them to Clwyd in 1975 when I became Oi/c Wrexham. These pre-connects were much faster to deploy than rolled hose from lockers and were first choice when hose-reels were not suitable. They were usually washed off at the fire ground and immediately re-stowed. All Cheshire and Clwyd appliances also carried a 10m to 15m length of rolled 63mm hose in the pump bay for replenishing the tank from a hydrant. It was simply rolled up and put back in the bay after use.

Added by Alan Woodward on 12 August 2011.

When I joined North Yorkshire fire brigade in 1977 we used to have two lengths of 45mm dutch rolled and pre-connected hose in the pump bay with brackets to hold the branch's. When needed you simply threw the hose and opened the branch.

Added by Paul Warnock on 13 August 2011.

The older airport machines (Nubian's)etc had a 100ft Dutch rolled length in a side locker connected to a pump delivery inside the locker and a 10X FMB. All you had to do is open the locker door, drop the roll onto the ground and run like hell with the 10X.......simples !

Added by Barrie Green on 13 August 2011.

Recent deliveries to French city brigades (including Paris) show a 60M or 90M 45MM pre-connected reel on pumpers, as well as one 25MM high pressure reel. Several large US city fire departments have deleted 25MM hosereels from their new pumpers in favour of using the 45MM crosslay as the first attack line. This is fitted (as in France) with a variable volume spray/jet nozzle, which can be adjusted between 400 LPM and 800 LPM. Some Chiefs here were concerned that engine companies were all too ready to rely on high pressure reels, while the 45MM crosslay was just as quick to deploy, and offers the opportunity to put much more "wet stuff on the red stuff" if this turns out to be needed.

Added by Rob Johnson on 15 August 2011.

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