By Bill Adams

I don’t advocate using or not using two-inch hose for handlines.

I’ve never handled two-inch on a fireground or during a training scenario and rely on others’ expertise who are more versed in the subject as well as published pieces by people such as “water movement guru” Paul Schapiro (http://bit.ly/2F537TR). I asked Bill Graves, regional sales manager for All American Hose, to weigh in with commentary from a hose manufacturer’s perspective.

1 This Hamlin, New York, engine has two 200-foot 1¾-inch crosslays (red and yellow) and a 200-foot two-inch crosslay (blue). This rig also has two 150-foot 1¾-inch preconnects on top of the driver’s side compartment connected to a gated wye on the pump panel. (Photos 1 and 2 by Allan Smith.)

Except for a few dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists, the fire service has accepted the fact that 1¾-inch hose has replaced 1½-inch as the standard handline for initial attack. Today, using two-inch hose for initial attack is slowly gaining popularity. According to Graves, the attack hose market for 1½-inch hose accounts for 10 percent of sales, 1¾-inch has 75 percent of the sales, and two-inch has the remaining 15 percent. Generic reasons given for changing over to two-inch are lower weight, more maneuverability, less friction loss, and increased flow. If explicit firematic goals and objectives for purchasing two-inch are not clearly defined, the generalized reasons for purchasing can become false narratives.

2 A newer engine from Hamlin has speedays with two 200-foot 1¾-inch preconnects (red and yellow) and a 200-foot two-inch preconnect (blue). All of Hamlin’s rigs have rear preconnects including 300-foot two-inch lines and preconnected portable ground monitors.

It is admirable when innovations and technology make firefighters’ lives easy and safer. Occasionally new concepts, designs, or changes in the fire service create skepticism and occasional ridicule. In the 1950s, firefighters ridiculed putting doors on apparatus cabs, and then they complained about going to fully enclosed four-door cabs. For years, some questioned whose idea it was to mandate using self-contained breathing apparatus. And, then it was foolish to use large-diameter hose. Adopting two-inch hose for handlines can invite similar comments from the uninformed, the uneducated, and unfortunately the ignorant.

Preplann