 A rather nice training tower. |
 Firefighters get ready to re-pack a rear preconnect |
 Brian Hurst (CT) gets into position atop the hose bed |
 Instructor Pete Kirtze (Captain, Buffalo NY) shows John Cannon (Captain, Portland ME) a simple trick using a seatbelt strap to secure himself to the handrail so that he could free up both hands to load hose while standing on the tailboard. |
 Putting a long loop every 50' allows you to determine at a glance how much hose is in the bed. |
 After repacking the hose, Captain Cannon gets to pull it back off. |
 Brian assists by pulling the next section of hose out of the bed. |
 Pete demonstrates another neat trick - by looping the hose while walking it out instead of throwing it over the shoulder, it actually pulls a vacuum as you walk, and the water is expelled and the hose flattened much more effectively. |
 At this station, instructor Jason Blake (Montgomery Co. MD) explains how to deploy the minuteman load. The first stack goes over the shoulder, and the second stack gets pulled onto the ground. |
 As the firefighter walks, the hose on the ground gets extended behind him. The firefighter should then have enough hose from the shoulder load to make entry into the structure. |
 Jay demonstrates wrapping the nozzle as the load is re-packed to protect it. |
 One way to secure the nozzle within easy reach (great for those of us who are vertically challenged, especially with today's high hose beds!!!) |
 The standpipe station was run by instructor Jim Smith (FDNY). We learned how to package a standpipe load the way FDNY does it, shown here. This was quick to deploy, as both couplings are accessible to make the necessary connections, and the middle of the hose is easily found and can be walked up the steps. |
 Here is the Detroit load, basically a simple horseshoe configuration. |
 One advantage of the Detroit load is that it can be thrown over the SCBA bottle for easy hands-free carrying. |
 This station demonstrated the Detroit Bundle, a way to package an attack line, backup line and larger supply hose together. |
 Instructor Steve Florian explains this configuration. It consists of the attack line in one bundle on the tailboard at the top (non-preconnected), and the backup line in another bundle on the tailboard at the bottom connected with a gated wye to the supply line in the hose bed. |
 The first firefighter takes the attack bundle to the entry point. The second firefighter then picks up the backup bundle in one arm, and pulls the horseshoed supply line with the other. |
 As the second firefighter walks, the supply line comes out of the bed and is extended. |
 We ran into a little snag on this deployment, and had to untangle a bit of spaghetti. |
 Demonstrating using a wall to assist with re-packaging the supply line in a double-stack |
 The attack line bundle is then secured with a simple slip-knot |
 Instructor Anthony Piontek (Green Bay, WI) headed up the next station. Here we learned some tricks on estimating distances in order to determine the length of hose needed for the lay. |
 He had a couple lays of different lengths set up for us to play with. |
 Yet another packaging option |
 In this evolution we tried to estimate a distance of a couple hundred feet, then deployed a long lay with each firefighter grabbing an armful of hose and stretching it out. |
 Here was something interesting - a smoothbore nozzle that served as a reducer while in-line, which could be disconnected and used for an attack. The instructor noted that the pistol grip was a disadvantage, as it tends to get snagged when the line is being deployed. |
 This station was our final stop - here we got some hands-on with the triple layer load. |
 Instructor Curt Isakson (Escambia Co., FL) gives an introduction to this hose load. |
 He emphasized that the first thing the firefighter should do when deploying this load is to remove the loop of hose from the nozzle's bale - otherwise there is a chance that the line will get charged while it is still in there, which would at best delay the operation, and at worst could smash some fingers! |
 We learned one way to get the hose ready for loading back in the tray, with one firefighter standing at the truck feeding the line.... |
 ....and another two firefighters walking the nozzle and a loop of hose out to form the triple-layer |
 Here the instructor demonstrated how firefighters could deploy the triple layer load even if they were in a narrow alleyway - instead of pulling the hose out away from the truck, they could deploy it alongside the apparatus. |
 A double-donut roll leaves both ends of the hose accessible for a quick connection (great for those of us who are not so talented at throwing hose rolls!) |
 Lt. Ray McCormack and yours truly |