Fire Hose Reel

Overview

A fire hose reel is a permanently connected first-aid firefighting appliance for the early stages of a fire, before the brigade arrives. It stores a long length of semi-rigid rubber hose coiled on a drum that is always live with mains water, so an untrained occupant can run out as much hose as they need and put water on a fire just by opening the nozzle. Because the hose is semi-rigid it stays round and flowing even when only partly unwound, which means the user does not have to pull off the whole length before water reaches the fire, the key advantage over a flat lay-flat fire hose.

The reel turns as a Drum Assembly: a steel drum on a hollow spindle running in bearings, fed by a rotary water joint so the hose stays charged at any angle. The whole reel hangs on a Swing Arm that pivots out of its wall recess, and it bolts up through the Wall Mount Plate. Water reaches it through the Inlet Pipe past an Ball Valve used for isolation during maintenance. The stored Hose feeds the Nozzle, whose own shutoff valve and adjustable tip let the user pick a jet or spray. Guide Rollers lead the hose off the drum without chafing.

How it works

The reel sits permanently pressurized up to the nozzle, with the inlet isolating valve open and the nozzle shut. To fight a fire the user swings the reel out from its recess, grips the nozzle, and walks toward the fire pulling hose off the drum, which free-wheels on its spindle bearings. Mains water enters through the inlet pipe and passes through the rotary water joint into the hollow spindle, so the hose stays fed no matter how far the drum has turned; the semi-rigid wall keeps the bore open even where the hose is still coiled. At the fire the operator opens the quarter-turn valve in the nozzle to start the flow and adjusts the tip from a long straight jet, for reach, to a wide cone spray, for knock-down and self-protection. After use the valve is closed, the isolating valve can be shut, and the hose is wound back onto the drum and the reel swung home into its recess ready for the next time.