What are the Pro’s and Con’s of supplying through direct waterway/rear intake? When would you want to pump Quint with separate apparatus? What are some considerations when using quints for Fire Attack? Should Crew of Quint operate as Truck or Engine when First Due?
Length of preconnects so you can position for the stick and no come up short. We preach truck gets the front but often the front is not the best spot for the stick. Obstructions may have us past the building or some other spot to utilize the the aerial.
We run a 3 man quint as our truck. If we use the tower for water, we will have an engine pump directly to our aerial and bypass our pump. This frees up our truck’s operator to run the ladder. While our quint does have preconnected lines, we try to avoid leading out and acting as an engine company. We are fortunate enough that we have 3 engines no more than 2 minutes behind us. Unfortunately, for us, we have found that if our truck crew doesn’t do the truck functions, they don’t get done in a timely manner.
A benefit of supplying the stick via rear intake is, as was already noted above, it frees the D/O to operate the stick. The downside to it is if you don’t have enough water volume and/or pressure available from the Engine or Hydrant supplying it, then you may not be able to make much of a dent in the fire. Nothing is worse than getting the stick up and realizing you don’t have enough water coming out the nozzle to do any good. Our department’s standing policy is typically for the Truck Co. to secure their own water supply and to run it through the pump intake, so as to give the ability to to boost the pressure if needed. Not saying this is always the best approach, but it works in many situations. Having an engine pump the quint is of benefit especially in limited staffing situations, because it only requires one pump operator to manage the water situation. This does, however, leave all your eggs in one basket. I think that whether the Quint operates as an Eng. Co. or as a Truck Co. will need to vary based on circumstances, i.e. responding from a multi-company house (Eng. Co. responding with Quint), an Engine Co. close behind Quint, need for immediate rescue, fire conditions, etc. Our department SOP states that if a Truck Co. (all our Truck Co. are Quints) is first due, that they must perform Engine Co. functions. However, as stated above, if the C/O determines Truck work must be done first or if he knows he has an Engine Co. not far behind, he has the discretion to do so. I think that flexibility is one of the strong points of Quint apparatus. C/o’s must do a complete size-up as they’re arriving on scene to determine how they will be operating, and then commit to that function. In my opinion, I don’t think the company on the quint can effectively operate as both Engine Co. and Truck Co. at the same time. So it is vitally important to make this determination early and position accordingly. In the end, the company must determine which mode of operation is going to best lead to the mitigation of the incident and hit it hard, fast and aggressively.