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The Mack Super Pumper was a locomotive engined fire fighter (2018)

(bangshift.com)
169 points mstngl | 1 comments | 03 Nov 25 20:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.299s | source
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jauntywundrkind ◴[03 Nov 25 22:15 UTC] No.45805094[source]▶
This thing feels like a mortal danger to the (up to 8x!) iron pipes / hydrants it's pulling from, that it'd want to just chew up the very pipes themselves! Or to the building it's hurling 37 tons of water a minute at! I don't understand how a connector hose wouldn't collapse, how it maintains any cross-section rather than being sucked into collapse.

Also wondering: what replaced this!

(Ed: great reply from Mindcrime. Also, the new Ferrara Super Pumper shows a very impressive ribbed(?) 8-inch "hard suction" hose! There's a whole wikipedia section for these drafting/vacuum hoses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suction_hose)

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1. bombcar ◴[04 Nov 25 10:40 UTC] No.45809485[source]▶
You don't bust this out until the building is already at risk anyway, so the amount of water is considered "the better option".

(Which is why almost ANY fire is a total structure loss unless you can contain it nearly instantly, because the water used to fight it destroys nearly everything. Only if the building is large, concrete, or the damage limited is it worth repairing; most fire-damaged houses get pulled down as it's cheaper overall.)