Rolling the hose

By Mark van der Feyst

After putting out a structure fire, cleaning up and repacking the apparatus is the hard part. This is when we are tired and just want to get back so that we can get cleaned up and rest. During this time, we tend to get a little sloppy with repacking the apparatus.

One particular item is the attack line. After the water has been drained, it is repacked back in the hose bed as per departmental guidelines. When the hose is repacked, it tends to be full of air, which causes the hose to not sit flat in the hose bed. Often it will form into a banana-like shape in the hose bed. A way to alleviate this is to roll the hose. Rolling the hose pushes out all the air still inside the hose. When it comes time to reload the hose bed, it is just a matter of unrolling the hose as it is being repacked. No more banana-shape hose beds.