General Discussion > Fire Fighter Training

FW: What is a "combat ready" engine company (USA Blog)

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--- Quote from: Alex on January 09, 2009, 06:35:42 PM ---Thats what i thought mate, was wondering why it was being discussed as if it didn't exist in CFS at all...

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Its all about who you are talking to. Shitheap Brigade 24 has never seen a flaked hose, whereas, like Joff suggested, those from brigades that have had either the old pumper builds or the new Type 2 builds are generally familiar with basic flaked hose setups. Flaked hose setups are still in the minority, and I would suggest that sadly thats where they will stay, only being used in certain urban areas where the brigades are forward thinking and happy to experiment with ideas.


--- Quote from: joff on January 09, 2009, 04:59:00 PM ---Reverse and forward lay can work very well if your crew know what they are doing, if you do have a well oiled crew someone can be dumped at the hydrant and lay into the job, if you know it is a going job and you have a good crew this should not delay anything. If your the second truck in you can reverse lay from the first pumping appliance back to the next hydrant or set yourself on a cross street/main road to supply water.
Having been to the states and seen first hand how the engine companies operate in many departments, yes there are a lot of things that are set up for the USA but a lot of good points in knowing you role at a call, knowing your gear, and knowing how to actually drive and operate a pumping appliance.

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I'm sure that Forward lays and Reverse lays work well with a well oiled bunch of wannabe USA firies, but for the rest of us mere mortals we might just stick to getting off the truck, donning and getting to work and THEN getting water in. Once we see the Storz couplings go mainstream, it'll make flaked hoselays so much easier to pull off and get to work, rather than having to worry about the direction in which the hose is running.

You're 110% correct about the good things to come out of the USA, especially the things that can be adopted to work in CFS. Things like rigidly assigned seating roles can be hard, with the different in training and the like - its a bit hard to say seats 1 and 2 are BA when one of your operators might be the driver - But if you think outside the square you can adapt it and make it work. People tend to lose sight of the basics which are exactly as you said:


--- Quote from: joff on January 09, 2009, 04:59:00 PM ---Knowing you role at a call, knowing your gear, and knowing how to actually drive and operate a pumping appliance.
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We could all do well to take a leaf out of the book of many of the USA Volunteer Fire Departments that actually take their firefighting seriously, rather than with the "I'm just a volunteer" attitude.

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