In November of last year, the Rescue Program Coordinator from Rocky Mountain Fire visited us in Ouray with an interesting question: can wildland firefighters use their fire hose as anchor material in an improvised rescue scenario?
The following videos show two pulls that we did on a .75″ forestry hose (commonly referred to as a “garden hose”) and a 1.5″ single jacket forestry hose; both samples were heavily used prior to testing.
The .75″ hose was configured as a wrap two pull two with a ring bend, and broke mid-strand at 6.83 kN.
The 1.5″ hose was configured as a single strand anchored at each end with an overhand knot, and broke mid-strand at 18.93 kN.
Both of these are considered “quick look” tests and are far from comprehensive. Nonetheless, it’s fun to see things break.
