A fire fighting water pump is an essential part of your department’s arsenal and a critical component of an effective fire suppression system. The right size water pump for the job will enable you to quickly and reliably fight a fire, keeping your personnel safe from harm and your property protected from damage.
In order to ensure that your fire fighting pump will work as expected when called upon, it is important that you inspect it regularly. This will help you to catch any issues that may arise before they become a major problem and allow you to repair them before the issue becomes catastrophic.
Fire pumps are either mounted on fire trucks as integrated or front-mounted pumps or they can be portable pumps that can be set up near a water source. Regardless of which type of fire pump you choose, they should be easy to maintain and operate. When a pump is easy to work on, it will be easier for your firefighters to maintain it and keep it running at peak performance.
Depending on your building, the terrain and other circumstances, you will need to determine how much fire fighting water flow and pressure is required. One way to determine this is to conduct a sprinkler area method, which involves analyzing the hazard levels of each floor in the building to calculate pressure requirements and design density.
Another way to determine how much fire suppression water is required is to use a pump test. This will put your fire fighting pump through its paces using actual water to measure both the flow rate and water pressure of your pump. The results from these tests can be used to compare against the original design specifications for your fire fighting pump. fire fighting water pump