Kankakee Area Career Center

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Got Hose?

Fire-Rescue-EMR students training with hoses

The most fundamental task an engine company must perform is stretching hose lines to extinguish a fire. And there is nothing worse than "stretching short" and not having enough hose to reach the fire.

Students in the Fire/Rescue/EMR class at the Kankakee Area Career Center have been performing fire hose evolutions that include loading and deploying hose lines of varying lengths.

Most of the time fires are attacked using small diameter (1-1/2" or 1-3/4") hose lines of about 150' that are "pre-connected" to the fire engine's pump. Sometimes, however, bigger sizes and longer lengths are needed to reach fires that are farther away so firefighters must know how to quickly and efficiently estimate the amount of hose needed and stretch these hose lines without hesitation.

KACC students were taught how to calculate how much hose is needed for any given fire depending on building setbacks, the structure's square footage; and the building height and location of the fire.

Students here are pictured deploying 800' feet of 3" hose using the "shoulder load" hose carry. Imagine, more than the length of two and a half football fields.