General Terms:
Pumper: Known in some places as an Engine or a Triple. The triple means that is carries three things - water, pump, and hose. The pumper is the backbone of most fire department fleets.
Ladder: A truck that carries a compliment of ground ladders and an aerial ladder or elevating platform. Sometimes firefighters call ladders, trucks, and the firemen that man them, truckies. Some ladder trucks are articulated like a tractor trailer and are called tillers. Tillers need two people to steer them, the driver up front, and the tillerman at the rear.
Snorkel: The name of a specific type of elevating platform, though now used more generically as any type of cherry picker type unit, you know the things like the power company trucks use, its like one of those. Snorkel use is on the decline in many areas as more departments discover elevating platforms.
Elevating Platform: A unit which features a regular ladder with a basket attached to the end. Most have the ladder mounted at the rear with the basket hanging over the cab. One company has the ladder mounted in the middle of the truck, with the basket hanging over the rear. The terms rear mount and midship mount apply here, and also to regular ladder trucks.
Quad: A vehicle that carries four things - water, pump, hose, and a large supply of ground ladders, usually about 200' or so. There are not as many quads around as there used to be, Sixby Fire Tech currently has no plans to offer them.
Quint: A vehicle that carries five things - water, pump, hose, ground ladders, and an aerial ladder or elevating platform of some type. However, many vehicles are now called quints that are not true quints. Many lack the full compliment of ground ladders. The Sixby Quint is an example of this type of so-called quint.
ARFF: Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting. The generic name for fire trucks that airports use. Many are also called crash trucks for obvious reasons.
Tanker: A vehicle which carries a large amount of water. These are used in rural areas with no hydrants.
Brush Truck: Vehicles that are used in the combat of forest and brush fires. These can be anything from a simple jeep or a ex-military conversion. The area of custom brush trucks is growing as SWI becomes more and more of a problem.
SWI: Structural Wildland Interzone, the area where the houses meet the forest. This does not only happen in heavily wooded areas. Nearly anywhere that there are subdivisions surrounded by trees and brush, there could be SWI problems. This urban sprawl sometimes far surpasses water supply, so many SWI areas might not have hydrants.
Rescue: Sometimes called squads, these rigs can carry nearly anything from the Jaws of Life, boats, Haz-Mat supplies, or technical rescue gear. There are many types of rescue trucks of all sizes. Many now carry a pump, tank, and hose for quick fire attack, our Rescue is an example of this type of rig.
Haz-Mat: Short for Hazardous Materials. Nearly anything that can harm people or the environment is Haz-Mat. Haz-Mat could also be a type of vehicle that carries the equipment to deal with such situations. Firemen usually have to have special training to deal with Haz-Mat situations.
Technical Rescue: This could be any type of rescue situation that requires special training on the part of the firemen assigned to do such a thing. Some different types of technical rescue might be: Building Collapse Rescue, Trench Rescue, Swift Water Rescue, Dive Rescue, High Angle (rope) Rescue, or even Confined Space Rescue. You can see that many of these might be linked such as needing High Angle and Confined Space skills to rescue someone in a pit at a construction site. One of the first most famous technical rescues, in the United States anyway, was that of a small child who fell into an abandoned well, although the first time there was a recognized need for such a thing was when two walkways at a hotel collapsed. Many departments around the country are forming USAR, Urban Search And Rescue, teams to deal with technical rescues. They might be needed after a hurricane, earthquake, or terrorist act.
Extrication: The means of getting someone out of a certian area. This might take place in their car, if they are trapped after a crash, or inside a railroad tank car, after they got overcome by fumes.
Ventilation: This is just what is sounds like. When people see firefighters cutting holes in the roof or smashing windows, they aren't doing this for fun, they are ventilating the structure. Heat rises and to open up a section of roof allows heat, smoke, and fire to escape allowing firemen to advance hoses into the burning structure. When hoses are used alot of air is pushed along with the water, and if there was no place for that air to go, steam and smoke would envelope the firemen operating the hose. If a window on the opposite side of the fire was open or ventilated by other firefighters, the hoseline could be advanced and the air along with the steam and smoke would escape thru that window. Ventilation is actually a very technical process and is just as important as putting water on the fire. Incorrect ventilation can make a fire much, much worse.
Overhaul: The process of making sure a fire is out. This might involve opening up walls, floors, and ceilings to make sure there is no hidden fire still burning. Pike poles are used to pull down ceilings to check for any extension of the fire, while axes can easily be used to open up walls.
Equipment Terms and Definitions:
Booster Line: A small hose used for small fires. Usually about twice the diameter of a garden hose or about .75" - 1", it can be used on garbage, brush, or other small nusiance fires. Booster lines are usually coated with a hard rubber type compound (usually red colored) so they hold their shape when wound up on reels. This also means you only pull off the reel how much hose you need, as when the line is charged, i.e. filled with water, the water flows thru the part that is still on the reel, to the nozzle. Booster line use has been on the decline in some areas, and many departments have abandoned them for short, 50', preconnected attack lines, sometimes stored on the front bumper of the rig.
Attack Line: A hose usually around twice the size of a booster line or about 1.5" - 2.5" in diameter. This is the line that is used by the firemen to directly attack the fire. It can be taken inside structure fires or used on car fires. It is made of cloth or polymer fibers and is stored flat, thats right, flat. Only the connections are round at this point when stored. If you had a pre-connected attack line, and did not pull (sometimes called stretch) all the line out before charging it, you would be in for a surprise. Attack lines, when filled with water, greatly expand out to a round shape. They must not have kinks or sharp bends in them, like when your garden hose does, as you will lose your water.
Supply Line: Hose that is used to move large amounts of water usually about 2.5" to 6" in diameter. This is also made of cloth or polymers, and is also stored flat. This could be used to connect from a Hydrant to a Pumper, or from a Pumper to a Ladder truck, to supply a Ladder Pipe, which is a nozzle at the end of the ladder. You could also uses this to relay water from one Pumper close to a Hydrant to another Pumper closer to the Fire.
Hard Suction Hose: A length of hose that is made of hard rubber and is non-collapsable. This way you can use it to suction or suck up water out of a lake or river. If you tried this with regular supply line, you would be unable to as it would stay flat.
Pre-Connected: A term used to describe the condition of a length of hose. If the hose is normally found attached to a pump outlet or intake, then that hose if pre-connected. Booster lines are nearly always pre-connected. Attack lines may be, but they may also be stored loose in the hose bed, so one could pull how much hose is needed, then attach it to a pump outlet. Supply line is rarely pre-connected, except for smaller 50' - 100' lengths for quick connection to a hydrant. Most hoses have male connections at one end and female connections at the other. Most attack lines come in 50' lenghts, while supply lines come in 100' lenghts.
Wye: A device that you hook to the end of a supply line, that branches off into two smaller outlets. The Wye might have a 3" opening on one end and two, 1.5" openings with shutoff valves on the other. Wye's are fairly small, and made of metal. Why do you need a wye? Friction loss. You can only use about a 200' length or so of attack line and be effective. As the water goes thru the hose, alot of energy is lost as the water rubs up against the inside of the hose, this is friction loss. If your house is 400' off the street and the pumper can get up your driveway then they can lay supply line up your driveway from the hydrant to your house, although there is friction loss in a supply line too though, just not as much. But if the pumper can't go up your driveway, firemen will have to lay a line from the hydrant to the beginning of your driveway at the street. They will then hand stretch about 400' of supply line to the front of your house while other firemen get an attack line and a wye. Hopefully your department has at least 4 men on a pumper, otherwise this will take some time to do. The wye will be attached to the supply line, and the line can be charged. Once attack lines are hooked to the wye, the firemen can use the shutoff on the wye to charge the attack line, firefighting can then begin. Many departments have in their hosebed a supply line hooked to a wye, with two attack lines hooked to that. That way some time can be saved stretching, though it will still take at least the full crew to do this.
Master Stream: A stationary nozzle used to supply large amounts of water, more then an attack line could. Your movement is limited with a master stream, but the volume of water often surpasses this limitation. The Deck Gun is often mounted high up on a pumper, a Ladder Pipe can be fixed to the top of a ladder truck however this must be supplied with a supply line, and our Sixby Quint features a pre-piped waterway at the tip of the ladder, so a supply line is not needed to be run up the ladder to supply it, the piping is built in to the ladder.
Pump and Roll: This is a system by which a vehicle can be moved about while pumping. Most rigs need to be stationary while pumping. The gear for Pump is often on the same gearshift as Drive and Park. Some units overcome this by having the pump connected to an engine that just runs the pump. Sixby Fire Tech uses a variety of clutches to enable our units to pump and roll.
Foam: There are many types of foam. Each one must be mixed with water to form a finished foam solution. Sixby Fire Tech uses two types. Class A foam is used with CAFS, Compressed Air Foam System, to enhance the fire knockdown ability of water. Class A foam can also be used to pre-coat structures during the threat of an advancing SWI fire. AFFF, Aqueous Film Forming Foam, is used to combat flammable liquid fires. It also forms a vapor seal to prevent vapors from escaping the foam and igniting, very useful for aircraft or tanker truck fires.
Foam Proportioner: Most foam is proportioned to either a 3% foam to 97% water solution or 6% foam to 94% water solution to form a finished foam solution. The round the pump foam proportioner is built into the pump for ease in foam proportioning. The controls are located on the pump panel, which makes changing the proportions easy. AFFF is ready to apply after this step, while Class A foam is run thru a CAFS.
CAFS: The Compressed Air Foam System uses an air compressor to inject air into the finished foam solution, creating foam/air bubbles. This makes the final finished foam solution even more effective in fire knockdown when compared to just plain water or finished class A foam solution without CAFS.
Fire Extinguisher: A portable hand held firefighting device. I'm sure you've seen one. Sixby Fire Tech uses four types. The water fire extinguisher is known to some as "the can", as it is usually made of a silvery, shiny metal. The dry chemical extinguisher is usually red and comes in a variety of sizes. CO2 extinguishers are used on flammable liquid fires while special Metal Powser extinguishers can be used on burning metals. Our extinguishers are color coded, blue for water, grey for dry chemical, red for CO2, and yellow for Metal Powder.
SCBA: These are Self Contained Breathing Apparatus worn by firemen to prevent them from breathing in harmful smoke and gasses. It consists of a facepiece and an air tank. Most of our units carry spare air tanks for these as there is only enough air for about 20 or so minutes.
Jaws of Life: Made famous by the Hurst company, also known as the Hurst tool. They are now made by several companies. There are different types of Jaws of Life, some can cut like huge scissors while others can pry. Most use hydraulics do to this so you have to have a seperate hydraulic power unit to use these tools. Many rescue trucks, like those used at racetracks, have pre-connected Jaws of Life. The power unit is carried in the truck and the hydraulic hoses on reels attached to the Jaws of Life. Most of these rigs still do carry a seperate power unit just in case the rescue truck can't get close to the accident.
Rescue Saw: Based on the K-12 roof saw. Sixby Fire Tech's version of this saw can also be used to breach walls, cut down trees, or even assist in vehicle extrication.
ALS Equipment: Advanced Life Support equipment as used by paramedics. Paramedics can administer drugs to patients, whereas EMT's (Emergency Medical Technicians) can't. Sixby Fire Tech provides a drug box, trauma box, and oxygen bottles for ALS equipment. The trauma box carries a variety of medical gear including an AED, Automatic External Defibrilator, for heart attack victims.
BLS Equipment: Basic Life Support equipment, kind of an enhanced first aid kit. Mainly used by EMT's. Sixby Fire Tech's First Aid Kit contains a variety of BLS equipment.
CO Detector: This is used to detect harmful CO gas, although Sixby Fire Tech's detector can be used to detect other harmful gasses like natural gas or hydrogen gas.
Forcible Entry Equipment: Equipment used to force entry into a house or business that is on fire. Axes and sledgehammers can be used in this capacity. If one inserts an axe into a door frame and pounds it in with a sledgehammer, you can then pry the door open with the axe. Prybars are sometimes used for this also, but they are limited in other uses. This way an axe and sledgehammer can be carried and used for multiple tasks.
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