Use of a gated manifold / portable hydrant

[Monty 35]

Hello,

I was curious if anyone had used a manifold / portable hydrant at a real job? I can see some potential benefits of such a device but I was really looking to see if anyone had actually used it for real. Or is this one of those specialty pieces that gets used once in a hundred years?

Thanks.

[Dondestro 9]

We used one at our tanker shuttle drill up here in New Faifield a month or so ago. it worked well as we had four 2 1/2 in lines coming off it as well as a a ldh about 25' long. Depending on the tanker and/or if we had multiple to fill at one time we would use the 5in ldh to fill one at a time or we could fill two wth the two 2/12's.....persoanlly i think since we are drafting out of a pond using a dry hydrant it was more practical to use the smaller diameter hose inorder to control how much water you were pusing at one time. If you start filling to fast then you can lose prime pretty quick then it just becomes a hasel.

[Guest]

Never used one like in the photo but, the drawbacks would almost be the same as using a gated wye for two handlines. Unless the two lines are identical in size, length, elevation and nozzles, the gates would require adjustments to satisfy the requirements of each line off it. (ex-150 ft of 2" with a smooth bore and 200ft of 2" with a TFT)

[Guest]

I know up here we have used one on a few calls.

All we did was have a pumper drafting out of the drop tank, pumping into that device, and we had a few hand lines coming out. it worked out very good.

[ajsbear 11]

We have them on both of our engines attached to LDH.

[ldrco195 17]

Hello,

I was curious if anyone had used a manifold / portable hydrant at a real job? I can see some potential benefits of such a device but I was really looking to see if anyone had actually used it for real. Or is this one of those specialty pieces that gets used once in a hundred years?

Thanks.

I can say I did about 12 years ago.

Crafton Boro, Pittsburgh, PA.

4 Houses on Fire - No Alley to the Rear -

I was the chauffer on the first arriving second alarm engine - we layed out from a hydrant on the parallel street to the houses that were behind the ones involved. We hand jacked 2 - 100' sections of 5" to (2) manifolds along with the 4 crosslays from our engine. We then had the other arriving second alarm units assisgned to our sector bring their crosslays to the rear and run them off our maifolds. They worked well. There were not too many complaints from the operating crews about pressure. Most were using smooth bore nozzles. The crews had their hands full. There was a significant amount of fire for all to take care of. I do not think that pressure on the line was a top priority on their minds.

I have read in various fire service publications about departments in urban areas that have developed a hose hand cart and appliance cart for their shopping malls. On the appliance carts, they have placed several of these for various tactical considerations. We have a large mall and conference / convention center in the town that I have been a firefighter for about the last 12 years and we have not done that. We have a company that operates a mini pumper designed for use in the mall.

I feel it is one of those items that you may only use once in a hundred years, but something your going to kick yourself in the behind for when you finally need it. It is heavy and expensive, but worth the expense. Train with it often to keep your operators and firefighters familiar with it.

Types Of Calls for Use:

Haz Mat: Portable Hydrant for Decon Area

Large Fires with long stretches: Run 5" to it (no friction loss) then 4 same length layouts (if situation allows) to the fire.

Rural Water Movement: Barns Etc:

Just a few from the top of my head.

Well good luck, hope that rambling helped you.

[Guest partyrock]

Working an area with sketchy staffing at times and long hauls to your water supply, drop the manifold, attack lines and reverse lay to your supply. You can gate down on each line at the manifold to control pressure at the knob, but its probably just easier to keep your stretches the same off the manifold.

[shadow12083 17]

Yeah we use it in during a job this year, for our water supply, we had tankers hook up to supply the engine that was providing water for the attack lines. We have also used it several times at drills.

[Tanker 10eng 140]

Yes, one was used this year at the Hackley School fire, at the #1 fill site for the tankers.. with this fitting, we were able to supply and hook up to fill multiple tankers without time wasted. It became a smooth operation, one of the better tankers ops I have seen in a long time...

Croton actually put one into the tankers budget for next year, so that we will always have one to use....

[grumpyff 1,159]

I have seen it used at a tanker-shuttle drill held in Patterson, back in July. 5" hose from the supply engine (22-2-1) to the manifold, and then 3" to the tanker(s). It gave the ability to fill multiple tankers at one time. Here is a quick photo taken from 22-2-1 facing the manifold, and the two tankers being filled.

[Monty 35]

Thanks, this gives me some good ideas for drilling - ironically one of the best uses seems to be tanker ops - but we don't have a tanker and we don't do mutual aid

[firemoose827 324]

Thanks, this gives me some good ideas for drilling - ironically one of the best uses seems to be tanker ops - but we don't have a tanker and we don't do mutual aid

Monty, we keep one on the back step of our supply engine attached to 2500' of 5" hose. For main street calls we drop the hydrant at the attack truck and lay into the center park where there is a dry hydrant. We connect to the truck with a siamese and two shorter lengths of 5" and we are able to get good gpm's to the scene. We use it for larger fires in the town also when there is a water source nearby. Excellent piece to have on your supply truck, I recomend them.

Moose