US Fire Pump Demonstrates 30,000 GPM Flow

Had it not been for the mighty Mississippi nearby, the flow demonstration that highlighted the US Fire Pump’s Big Water Symposium in November might have qualified as the biggest movement of water in Baton Rouge history.

An array of pumps, hose and monitors surrounding the testing pond at the Louisiana State University’s Fire and Emergency Training Institute delivered a combined flow rate of 30,000 gallons per minute, said John Snyder, fire specialist with US Fire Pump.

“That was accomplished with only seven pieces of equipment, not counting the guns themselves,” Snyder said.

USFP equipment utilized included two mobile pump units, three hydraulic submersible units, an Emergency Response Aquatic Deployment System, a Remote-Control Track Monitor, a Deluge apparatus and multiple monitor units.

“We wanted to bring a combination of everything to show a variety of flow from different devices,” Snyder said.

Nearly 20,000 gallons per minute of the big flow originated from two USFP submersible units. Each submersible unit has two 5,000 gpm floating pumps for a combined flow of 10,000 gpm each. Four lines of 12-inch large diameter hose moved the water along a 300-foot hose run to the two mobile pump units. From there, the water moved down two 12-inch lines, one to the Deluge Apparatus and the other to the 8,000 gpm monitor trailer.

Among the monitors used was USFP’s own trailer mounted deck gun with an output capable of 8,000-plus gpm.

The neighboring 6,250 gpm mobile pump unit relayed its water to the 8,000 gpm monitor by way of a Direct Foam Injection Skid located midway between them. The skid has an engine driven foam pump with a capacity of 12 gpm to 300 gpm and an application rate of 30,000 gpm @ one percent, 10,000 gpm @ three percent and 5,000 gpm @ six percent foam concentration. The Direct Foam Injection Skid is a flow based system to accurately meter the foam delivery.

The hydraulic submersible units are capable of an output ranging from 3,000 gpm to 20,000 gpm that supply water to the mobile pump units or apparatus. The mobile pump unit or apparatus will boost the pressure to deliver over distance to large volume monitors. This allows the apparatus operators to be positioned at safer distances from the incident and utilize the remote monitors.

In a separate operation, a Ferrara Fire Apparatus Inundator Super Pumper equipped with USFP’s High Velocity Pump produced a deck gun flow of 5,500 gpm. The Super Pumper was supplied by USFP’s ERADS, a pod mounted pump system also equipped with two 3,000 gpm submersible pumps. The ERADS also has a 25 kilowat generator and 180 cubic feet per minute air compressor.

Further around the pond, FETI’s own fire truck used a separate 3,000 gpm submersible pump to produce 1,500 gpm from its deck gun and another 1,250 gpm from a Task Force Tips Crossfire monitor.

Finally, USFP put into action its Remote-Control Track Monitor and a 2,000 gpm Sentry trailer monitor with a foam induction nozzle. These two units were being supplied from a third mobile pump trailer drafting with capacity of 6,250 gpm, shooting an additional 4,000 gpm into the air from the remote-tracks monitor and 2,000 gpm from the Sentry monitor.

“We could have brought in two more 6,250 gpm pumps and two more trailer mounted monitors and gotten as much as 40,000 or 50,000 gpm,” Snyder said.

Other displays included the company’s hose recovery vehicle, designed to recover 8- to 12-inch large diameter hose with the automated retrieval head.