Annual Fire Hose Testing... Should We?
We have become very good in recent years at improving safety conditions for firefighters. There has been an improvement in SCBA and personal protective equipment, enclosed cabs have come of age and the Incident Command System is no longer a mystery.
However, in many instances the very instrument we use to combat the fire, the fire hose, goes unchecked. For many of us it is not that we don't think it should be tested, it is a question of time & manpower. Many of us find that when we do call the ever dreaded Hose Test Drill, it is always the same few people that are strapped with the work.
Annual service testing of fire hose is an important safety requirement and should be completed by every department. Imagine the potential legal ramifications were an attack line to burst and a firefighter injured or worse, and it was found that service testing was not done on the hose line.
NFPA 1962-88 "the care, use & service testing of the fire hose....." is included in NFPA 1500. As most of us move toward compliance with NFPA 1500, we must incorporate Annual Hose Testing and keep the proper records.
We use our own equipment, not yours
