Over the last few years there have been many incidents of unexpected and inadvertent deployment of fire hose from moving fire apparatus. In many of these incidents there were no injuries to civilians, but in some incidents there have been injuries, and in some cases, death. Many of these incidents have resulted in damage, not just to fire apparatus, hose, and nozzles, but citizen’s property.
Fire departments operating apparatus manufactured prior to the 2005 NFPA Tentative Interim Amendment (TIA) on NFPA 1901, 2003 edition, may want to consider retrofitting their existing apparatus to include the requirements in the TIA, which provides the following:
15.10.7* Any hose storage area shall be equipped with a positive means to prevent unintentional deployment of the hose from the top, sides, front, and rear of the hose storage area while the apparatus is underway in normal operations.
While this requirement applies to all newly manufactured fire apparatus, many existing apparatus manufactured prior to the 2005 TIA were not required to be equipped with a positive means to secure hose. Without a means to secure the hose, a potential risk of unintentional hose deployment exists.
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