The Combat Ready Engine Company – Pony Sleeves

We Bring Water!

Much like forcible entry, when we consider hose loads and hoseline deployment we must have a “Plan A, B, C, D”, etc, to get our Engine Companies hoseline in place and ready to put water on the fire.

That said, is every building in your district within 200’ or 250’ of where we park our Engine Company Apparatus? Obviously, the answer is no. Then why do we as a fire service continue to train and design our preconnected hose loads to reflect this ridiculous notion?Some engine companies are proactive and addressing building setbacks, cul-de-sacs, and other hoseline obstacles. They do this by either having a long length dead loaded line or a 400’ combination line (often referred to as a leaderline: 200′ of 2 1/2″ to a gated wye then 200′ 1 3/4″).

While the Engine Company with one of the above hose loads in their arsenal has an excellent start to addressing the issue of long lines, what about a 2nd long length line (backup line) when it is needed to go the floor above? How about 3rd line that needs to get to side Charlie? Do you have more then one leaderline on your apparatus?

The Pony Sleeve

One solution to can be as simple as the addition of a pony sleeve. Pony sleeves? No, it is not a collection of small horses tattooed on your arm! It is another tip that will make your Engine Company Combat Ready.

Step 1. Firefighter pulls the entire rack onto their shoulder

Step 3.The backup firefighter disconnects the preconnected line at the pony sleeve at ground level

Step 2. The Firefighter walks out until the pony sleeve is deployed

Step 4. The nozzle firefighter now has the entire rack on his shoulder and can deploy his 250′ from another Engine or make a long line. All without ever getting up on top of the Engine to disconnect!

The pony sleeve is a 4’ piece of 1 ¾” hose that will attach to the swivel valve in the tray of your preconnected crosslay. This short section of hose will allow you to deploy and pull your entire hoseload onto your shoulder. Once you have the entire load off the rig and on the shoulder, your partner (who will be at street level with you) can detach the crosslay entirely from the pumper. What have we now created? We have created a 200’ – 300’ line we can take anywhere we need too. This extra length may be important for us to reach our objective (especially when we compare it against the typical 100’ highrise or standpipe packs so have on most rigs).

Let’s assume, for instance: you are the 2nd arriving Engine Company. The 1^st Engine Company pulls into a dead end court and the pulls one line which is their leaderline (their longest line) its a long stretch. What do you pull as 2nd due? The longest line off the first rig already deployed, your rig is blocked out of the court. The Chief needs a line on the floor above, we must bring a hoseline in to extinguish extending fire. Having the ability to bring a 200’ – 350’ line with us (to hook into the other connection on the leader line) makes that job much easier.

Seconds Count

The addition of the pony sleeve is just another tip to make your Engine Company that carries preconnected hoselines Combat Ready. In deploying lines seconds count! Any study of fire behavior and BTU output demonstrates that fires burn exceedingly quicker and hotter than ever. We know seconds count for civilians trapped inside and our brother/sister firefighters searching.

Think how many seconds are saved when you can quickly disconnect a pre-connected hoseline at street level (with the Pony Sleeve) and not having climb up on top of an Engine in full gear to disconnect the line from the swivel