The 78th Civil Engineering Squadron’s Fire and Emergency Services team recently conducted their annual hose testing, working diligently on one truck’s worth of hoses at a time.
Although hose testing might seem routine, it directly supports both mission readiness and safety. This helps them identify faulty hoses ahead of time, ensuring they can eliminate potential risks before responding to emergencies.
“We perform this every year to ensure that if we have to use any of our hoses on an emergency, we won’t be surprised by any damage or wear and tear that could potentially cause that hose to fail,” said Quinton Doss, 78th CES firefighter. “The hose is our lifeline in a fire, and this is our way of making sure our lifeline is dependable.”
Doss explained if they have a hose that fails during an emergency response, the fire team is ready to react. They have back up hoses ready to deploy as needed, or worst-case scenario, they would call for a rescue team, who would then arrive with their own hose line to intervene.
After the emergency, the failed hose would be annotated by the hose testing team as out of service and replace it with an in-service hose. All firefighters are trained in how to maintain the hoses. However, to ensure continuity, they have a designated group of three firefighters who oversee the program.
“An untested hose is an unknown,” Doss said. “If an untested hose fails while we’re using it to try to save someone’s life, then that’s just one thing that could have been easily prevented. We do what we do to ensure that no matter what, our equipment will not fail us. It’s quite simple, but it’s just one more important part of all the things we do here to ensure our community receives the highest level of protection and service possible.”