Fire Department Tests and Maintains Equipment Frequently

Because a failure could be life-threatening

October 21, 2020 • Saved under Andover Organizations
By Rene Lefebvre
The Salisbury Fire Department’s Explorer Post #74 spent most of Saturday, September 26, at the Andover Fire Station pressure-testing about 4,000 feet of Andover’s fire hoses. It’s a process that has to be tackled every couple of years, involving hours and hours of unrolling and rolling up hose, making and breaking connections, tending to pressure pumps, and much more. Pictured are Mike Miller, Nick Lingner, Brenden Miller, Post advisor Jeff Miller, Olivia Anderson, Post advisor Diana Miller, and Rachel Lake. For more about the Explorers, search for “Fire-Explorer-Post-74” on Facebook.com. Photo: Charlie Darling

Andover, like most fire departments, has lots of hose.  We have several thousand feet in various sizes and colors. When the hose is in use at a fire, it gets dragged through a building or through the woods. 

Fire hose is made to be tough but not indestructible. The only way to be sure that hose is not damaged is to test it. Individual pieces of hose are brought up to several hundred pounds of pressure and must hold for 10 minutes at pressure without leaking. This takes lots of time and effort. However, failure at a critical time could be life-threatening. 

This summer, all hose was tested and logged for tracking. We also test the nozzles we use and the air packs we wear.  Our fire pumps are tested to Underwriters Laboratories standards. Most of this testing takes place every year.

The equipment on every truck is checked once a month, and a log is kept of the condition of each compartment. The boat, the snowmobile, and the ATV are also checked and tested. It seems that any piece of equipment that is not paid attention to will fail, stick, or not start. Perhaps Murphy’s Law is alive and well in the fire service. 

There is another very good reason for all the testing and checking. The firemen become very familiar with the equipment and where it is located. Many of the team can open a compartment and spot something missing without checking the compartment log. This is a very valuable skill during an emergency when time and accuracy are so critical.

Andover doesn’t do any more testing than most departments, however this task is critical to our overall competence as a fire department. 

The people of Andover have provided their fire department with the equipment needed to do our work, and we spend a lot of time taking care of it. A win-win for all.
In this time of COVID, maintaining training and equipment checks has been a challenge. Fighting a house fire is a challenge, too. We have a good handle on both and are able to do either in a safe way. 

 

You have similar challenges coping with the dangers of COVID.  Like us, you cannot let your guard down. Get your flu vaccines, wear your mask, and social distance.

I would like to say a big thank you to Jeff and Diana Miller and the fire explorers for all the great work they did testing and logging all the hoses.

Remember, a clean chimney is likely a safe chimney.  Stay well.