Over The Shoulder or Under The Arm?

Last week, where I work, which has a fire protection requirement both Fire Brigade and ARFF wise, some of my co-workers did their annual live fire training. I get to do mine in the fall and I’m looking forward to it. Just like any actual hands on fire training that may occur, at any fire department these days, there’s always someone with a camera taking that memorable snap-shot, be it still digital photos or steaming video. For this particular training, for my co-workers, it was still digital photos. Photos and video from any training session is a great learning tool because it captures a moment that we can look back on that makes us do our job as a fire fighter better after reviewing them. Plus it’s pretty cool to see who looks the best in their fire gear. Yeah, right, we fire fighters are all about fashion. lol

After taking a look at photos taken of my co-worker’s live fire training drill, I begun to notice something that seemed different. Most had their advancing fire attack hose lines position on the shoulder when attacking the fire. Is this a wrong practice? Was someone trained wrong? No, not really, as long as a the fire fighter working the nozzle has a good handle on the hose line for control, the back-up fire fighter is assiting not hindering and is on the same side of the hose line as the nozzleman for teamwork that is needed when advancing the hose line the over the shoulder way can be used. For me it just looked completely different then what I’m use to seeing on the fire ground. Over all the years I’ve been doing the fire fighting gig, I’ve always had the attack hose line when fighting fire under the arm with nozzle in front of me for control and I would say it's the most common way used at most fire departments. This was the way I was trained.

I asked my co-works for their input and outlook as to why they used the over the shoulder with the attack hose line? Cross feeds are always a good thing to do, it makes us all better learners. All who used the fire hose in the over the shoulder manner said that 1) It was the way they were trained, 2) they had better control of the hose line, 3) it was more comfortable and, 4) given the set up of where the fire was located, it helped position the hose & nozzle for fire extinguishment. For this live fire drill it accomplished the goal of putting the fire out. Looked from the pictures too, all had a good and fun time.

For me I prefer, using the fire attack hose line under the arm with the nozzle in front when advancing & fighting fire, plus I have a better handle as well as control of the fire hose itself when using it this way. It’s the way I was trained and it works best for me. Not to say I won’t use the over the shoulder way if the situation dictated it. If that’s what is needed I would. The objective overall is to get the wet stuff on the red stuff.

Here’s a few web links to a some very good articles on advancing fire attack hose lines. I think, that after reading them, it’ll give addition information to the fire fighter, and keep one proficient on advancing that line…

http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-attack/articles/409511-Fire-Attack-Advancing-Hose-Lines/

http://www.firefightingincanada.com/content/view/3212/192/

(The usual disclaimers: I am not a journalist; This is a blog that expresses an outlook and is not conclusive in any shape or manner. I will not post any pictures that may violate any rules, polices or regulation. Pictures that I do post are free and off the internet to show an example of what I’m trying to express.)