Fire Engines Photos

39457 is another of Andy's great photos of a different FDNY high pressure pump, and explains how these eight special three stage pumps are configured. I should mention that - for obvious reasons - they are distributed across firehouses in high rise districts.

Other cities, including Chicago, tend to use regular normal 10AT rated pumps to pump in series, instead of having specific high pressure pumpers. Two - or even sometimes three - may pump in series to obtain the required pressure, also using special high pressure 75mm hoses if needed. Because they are only needed if building pump systems fail, they are in practice only very rarely actually deployed in high pressure mode.

As I have mentioned before, high rise response in US cities is usually pretty impressive. The building next door to ours in Chicago had a night time fire last week, on the 32nd floor. CFD reported an attendance of approximately 150 firefighters including eleven ambulance crews. Damage was confined to one apartment, six people were rescued and removed to hospital and one pet succumbed to smoke. Two floors above the fire floor were evacuated to avoid any more problems with smoke inhalation on the part of residents. Everyone else was confined to their residences.

Added by Rob Johnson on 17 September 2020.

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