There’s a healthy debate going on in the fire service about best ways to use the deck gun. Most specifically I boil the arguments I encounter the most to these three things:
- What size tip should you have on the deck gun?
- Should there be a ball valve on the deck gun?
- Are you expected to raise the deck gun or do you have the option to keep it bedded?
Personally, I like the idea of using the 3/8 inch tip that flows 500 GPM with a ball valve in the seated position. My reasons are simple:
- The DPO can charge the deck gun from the pump panel as soon as he/she is out of the truck.
- The driver can then position the deck gun where it needs to go (in the bedded position of course).
- The driver can open the ball valve when they are ready and knock down a large body of water without killing the tank.
I know there are situations where this configuration wont work i.e. the deck gun needs to be raised in order to hit inside a window, but I feel for a large majority of fires this will get the job done. The DPO can flow for 30 seconds to a minute and shut down leaving water in the tank.
To me, asking the driver to get out of the truck, raise and position the deck gun, climb back down to charge the appliance and come back down to shut it down is wasting valuable time.
Likewise, putting the ball valve on the deck gun and asking the driver to raise the deck gun before charging kinda defeats the purpose of having the ball valve up there in the first place. To me, the whole point of the ball valve is so the driver can charge the deck gun coming out of the truck and doesn’t have to make a trip up and back down.
It’s a touchy subject in the fire service as a lot of people think that the ball valve should be kept in the engineer’s compartment for other uses. Of course, if you have the luxury of multiple ball valves then this argument is moot.
What is your take on the subject?
