Andy Golz from Duluth (MN) Engine 1 sent in this simple and effective way to pin the Water Can. This tip works for replacing a missing pin, or to simply ensure the pin remains in place. They found a 2 ½” cotter pin and secured it in place with some paracord. The pin is tight enough that it remains in place without a zip tie, yet is still loose enough so that it is easy to pull when needed. The paracord also makes it easier to pull the pin with a gloved hand.

Lieutenant Joseph Minehan from Boston Engine 28 sent in some recent photos of an artistic board up project in Boston. We first posted about Artistic Board Up (click here for the post) projects found in New York back in August of 2009, and followed up with photos from a fire involving and Artistic Board Up building in Baltimore City (click here for the post).

We wanted to re-post information about these so everyone stays on their toes about them. As you can see in the ones Lt. Minehan sent in, they are getting a bit more creative with the artwork.

Technician Jeff Billingsley from Denver (CO) Tower 1 sent in these photos of something they recently ran into on a fire alarm. The building was an old church that had a recent addition of an office and classroom building with modern construction techniques.

In order to separate the old portion of the building form the new building, they utilized roll down fire doors to achieve building separation from a fire code point of view.

As you can see in the photos both doors have a fusible link on either side to allow the doors to roll down into place in the event of a heat condition on either side of the door. The crew was able to manually pull the door down to inspect and take a photo. These style doors typically have a counter weight or spring mechanism that allows them to automatically roll into the down position when the fusible link lets go.

Below is a photo of the smaller door that was found in place of an average 33”-36” door way.

Below is a photo of the larger door that spanned about a 12’ wide hallway.

Because of the potential issues these could create on the fireground, we should try to be aware of this type of door in any of our buildings. These doors could operate behind us potentially cutting off our primary means of egress. It could also come down on the engine company’s umbilical cord and compromise their water flow.

Everyone should agree that knowing the ins and outs of your assigned rig is extremely important. We must know all capabilities and limitations, but then again it doesn’t look like this rig has many limitations…