At a round table discussion at the station we talked about the smokey packs.
On member stated that the smokey packs are used for brush overhaul and not direct attack?
Most members say that we use it for quick attack on the hot flank but the hose will suffer damage.
Has there been a case where the hose suffered such great damage the it became ineffective at the tip?
Is there a vidio on the use of this hose pack.
Or, could we come to FHMTC and have some the members with brush experience run us through a realistic drill?
Brush Season is near, I look forward to some input.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe Smokey pack was designed for the use of offensive as well as defensive fire attack. Including but not limited to dierct fire attack. Think back to our 10 standard fire orders, and our 18 watch-outs. As long as we are operating under the idealogy of anchor, flank, pinch, we should at no time be working in a condition where a 1″ hose line would not be effective for fire attack. Remeber we are working in the brush, travel as well as escape are not the easiest of things to do. If the fire becomes to large to fight with the use a 1″ line back off and let the fire do it’s thing. Additionally another benift of the smokey pack is the immplementaion of lateral lines every 100′ for mop up or to simply enough catch hot spots. As long as the smokey pack is deployed properly with the use of a wet line or a scratch line, and is kept out of the “burn” or other such hot material there should not be a concern for failure of our light wieght hose. As to a video available we are currently trying to procure additional trainning materials and will follow up on that.
With over 4 years at a southern California Wildland Fire Dept. before coming to the city, I’ve come to realize that our department is lacking knowledge, experience and most importantly Direction. I haven’t even seen a smokey pack yet let alone know how to make one.
Apparently somewhere in our department there is some new single jacket “wildland” hose, 100′ sections – anybody know how much there is?
Putting hose in a pack for deployment is not the best idea, nor are those ancient brush roles that are carried on most triples. Luckily my company has adopted the method I used at my previous department and its already been used on a fire and proven very fast and effective.
When putting in an initial hose lay you don’t want to spend time or equipment putting in lateral lines. You want to chase and catch the fire as fast as possible. When its time to mop up, do it while your pulling the hose lay out or put the T’s is afterward, hose clamps come in handy for this.
If your worried about fire getting behind you and burning your line or worse, USE A LOOKOUT.
As far as putting in a scratch line – thats a great idea but I don’t think most companies carry the proper tools for this or have had enough practice with it. If not done correctly – it gets exhausting quickly.
Thats all – Be safe in weeds!