Although the skylines of Unionville are outlined with trees and mountains rather than tall buildings, our small town has several multi-story buildings and complexes that come with unique firefighting challenges. One such challenge is bringing water from the fire engine to the firefighters who need it in large buildings. While it is technically possible to run a long hose connection from one side of a building to the other, navigating stairs and doors can be difficult and can cause problems with the hose. Monday evening, our firefighters had a chance to dive into the world of standpipe operations and use special bundles of hose called “high-rise packs”.
Standpipes are like the arteries of a building that are specifically designed for firefighting efforts in larger buildings. The pipes run throughout the building with several smaller connections in stairwells across several floors of a building. Each connection has it’s own valve to open the connection to supply water when a hose is attached.
The standpipe system connects to a Fire Department Connection also referred to as an FDC located on the outside of the building that a fire engine can connect to so that it can supply water throughout the system. The result is that Firefighters have connections to hook up to throughout the building that will be supplied with water by the fire engine and fire hydrant.
But how do they get the hose and the nozzle to the connection?
Enter the high-rise pack, a specially packaged combination of hoses, connections, and a nozzle that can be carried by a single firefighter to one of the connections. All of the equipment needed to connect to the standpipe system are included in the high-rise pack.
The most important part of standpipe operations is communication. In order to ensure that the water is provided when it is needed, all firefighters involved must work similarly to a relay team during a relay race, but in this case, the finish-line is extinguishing a fire.
This new standpipe addition to our burn tower was obtained through a grant from CT Water applied for in early 2023. Without their generous donation and the volunteered installation labor of an unnamed local sprinkler contractor, we would not have access to this great learning tool.
If this peek behind the curtain has sparked your interest, or if you feel that you have what it takes to answer the call and join our ranks, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line. And who knows? Maybe next time you see pipes in a stairwell, or a fire department connection on the outside of building, you can share your knowledge of what they are there for and what they do!
Disclaimer: Fire Suppressions Systems including standpipes, sprinklers and Fire Department Connections should all be serviced and used by licensed and trained professionals. Components of a fire suppression system, such as standpipes and sprinklers are often tied to fire alarms that will go off if the system is tampered with.