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