Photo Blog 6/23/10 FXFD Hose Test

[MikeF9]

Wednesday June 23, 2010
Photo Blog

OK, so I posted pictures on Facebook and then copy-and-pasted here. I have been given a couple of suggestions about photo-shopish things. Firehouse Tuesday night. We'll see about Wednesday night. In the meantime...........


Laying out the hose to be tested.


Steve Bessette gets things hooked up as former Chief Jim Field looks on.


As you can see, water is already flowing through the hose. Jesse Fleming has the Y cracked open to let the air out.


Here comes the water.


Hoses full of water at a certain pressure for a certain amount of time. No leaks. All is good.


After the test is done, connections are undone, and water drained out of the hoses.


Pulling the hoses down to be loaded back onto the truck.


Loading the hose back onto the truck.

[Henry]

Mike, Feel free to e-mail me any photos you want to put on your blog and I can reduce and load in your album in the photo gallery to use if you want - Also if you want to load my paint shop pro program, the offer still stands.

[Mike Raburn]

Uncle Mike,

My last 2.7, yes .7, years in the Navy I was at Adak Naval Air Station here in Alaska.

I was in the Crash Fire / Structural FD.

I got stuck up at the Naval Security Group "outpost" in the Structural Dept. and I was the dufus in charge of our shift.

Good duty, no bosses,day on day off with a Kelly.... awesome.
Made beer runs with the pumper on Friday night chow for College Football Saturday, used the turret gun to kill rats,,,,,etc etc

Anyways....we took over the Pierce Arrow pumper from the off going shift and went on our daily pump test, mandated by the department.

We went to the lowest hydrant on the system to ensure we got max pressure. "cook the books" sorta.
So we hooked up the 5" jumper to the side intake.

Any who, the kid at the pump didn't check the 5" intake / discharge valve at the front of the truck to make sure it was CLOSED.

Open / Close were his options, and I failed to double check him.

He ran the pump up to max RPM / PSI and when I saw the front bumper blow off the truck I knew we had an issue.

We carried a 10 foot 5 inch hose up in the grill at all times. We should have duct taped it OFF.
There were like 4 hydrants around there so we carried it for drafting.

That was a FUN call to make "Downtown" to request a different pumper.

Looking back on it, FUN TIMES! Wouldn't trade them for anything.
I still have my turn out gear under the house somewhere.