I thought this topic had run its course in the fire service—other than a rural application or when dealing with an urban interface area where the use of these reels is in a more specifically designed apparatus to meet the challenges of these quick-moving wildfires.

CLEAR DIRECTION

But, they have certainly been making somewhat of a comeback on urban and suburban engine companies as of late. These reels are a pricey option for your apparatus and can take up valuable space on any engine company. So, the department should have a defined need and purpose for using this space and the cost.

Another concern would be a defined operating procedure for the department on what type of fire these booster lines can be deployed and operated at. Their low flow can create some problems on fires where they may have been used in the past. The fuel loads and fuel composition that are ever present in our world today can easily overwhelm this line. The volatility of automobile construction is also another area where the technology and materials have overtaken and will easily overpower the booster line. Be careful when adding the booster line to your apparatus without clear direction on its use in the field.

REEL/LINE SIZE

The booster reel can come in a variety of sizes depending on the space available on a department’s apparatus, and this just refers to the reel size. The size of the hose that is placed on the reel also has a number of options. This size line would be determined by the department’s defined use and the exact water flow it is looking for on the fire it is designed to extinguish. The appropriate nozzle on the end of this line will also need to be considered to ensure it matches the flow requirements for the line.

One of the most common uses for the booster line is to quickly deploy a line on brush fires or small outside fires. This allows for a small maneuverable line that can deliver the desired water flow and then be stored back with minimal effort on the part of the firefighters, with the rewind motor doing most of the work. For the urban engine application, it can handle the quick nuisance fires that many of these companies respond to, such as trash fires and small vegetation fires, and allows for a quicker in-service time for those busy companies.

Any department will need to weigh the operational need of the booster line, the cost, and the space requirements on its apparatus. The choice to add this option is based on the department’s call types and needs for this specific type of line. Although I see the benefits of the booster line and the need by certain departments and their geographic response areas, make sure you are using the booster line for what it is designed for and not using the line out of a matter of convenience or complacency.

RICKY RILEY is the president of Traditions Training, LLC. He previously served as the operations chief for Clearwater (FL) Fire & Rescue and as a firefighter for Fairfax County (VA) Fire & Rescue. He is a firefighter with the Kentland (MD) Volunteer Fire Department. He is a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board.

Saying there’s no need for booster lines today or claiming they’re tools of the past doesn’t objectively answer the question. Not wanting to alienate reel manufacturers, I’ll say a booster line can be a valuable tool in facilitating specific fire suppression applications.

In the early 1960s, my volunteer department, like many others, regularly used booster lines for initial attack on structure fires. The booster was pulled for light smoke showing or fire at one window. If decent smoke was showing, or fire was visible at two windows, a preconnected 1½-inch was pulled if the rig had one. Fire at more than two windows or on two floors necessitated a 2½-inch stretch and hopefully a nearby water source.

It wasn’t smart then, and less so today, to charge into a burning building with a ¾-inch or one-inch line flowing between 12 and 23 gallons per minute (gpm). We were taught the ¾-inch booster flowed 12 gpm, and progressive departments ran one-inch boosters because they doubled the flow and were better for structure fires. Defining light smoke, decent smoke, and knowing which line was better was learned on the job and passed down by word of mouth.

Boosters extinguished many fires inside structures; however, those beyond the earliest incipient stages took a while to do so. Some were simply beyond the capabilities of the venerable one-inch Rockwood SG-60 nozzle designed to flow 20 gpm @ 100 pounds per square inch (psi) nozzle pressure (NP). Today, there’s an accepted minimum 100-gpm requirement for initial attack lines, with some having greater than 200-gpm capabilities. Hence, booster lines flowing plain water (no additives) at low gallonages and 100-psi NPs are ineffective for structural firefighting. Times and tactics have changed; however, all booster reels should not be scrapped.

My bias against booster lines is directed at traditional pumpers designed for structural firefighting that only occasionally respond to vegetation and nuisance fires such as trash cans (not dumpsters) or small mulch fires easily extinguishable with a couple of water cans. It doesn’t include anything inside or in close proximity to a structure. Nor does it include vehicle fires where firefighters are likely confronted with gallons of flammable liquids.

VEGETATION FIRES

Apparatus specifically designed to fight vegetation fires regularly use booster lines. I am not disparaging booster line use in the wildland urban interface (WUI) arena, nor am I demeaning departments that primarily respond to such incidents. Manufacturers such as Elkhart Brass, Akron Brass, and Task Force Tips advertise nozzles for booster and forestry use with flow ranges varying from 12 to 25 gpm, 13 to 60 gpm, 13 to 40 gpm, and 10 to 30 gpm. Perhaps justification for the aforementioned 12- to 23-gpm theory is the Elkhart Brass S-205-BAF available in 12- or 23-gpm flows. Consult manufacturers for data on NPs, single gallonage, variable gallonage, automatic nozzles, and straight tips for booster use. Note: Nozzle manufacturers do not promote them for structural attack.

Busy departments running full-sized struct