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23 January 2026
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Featured FRI Magazine article: Some thoughts on nozzles by Dale Jenkins, US
https://www.frimedia.org/uploads/1/2/2/7/122743954/fri_vol_3_no_11.pdf
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Some thoughts on nozzles written by Dale Jenkins, senior captain safety 24-A, Houston Fire Department, US (FRI Vol 3 no 11). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Some thoughts on nozzles
By Dale Jenkins, senior captain safety 24-A, Houston Fire Department, US
I was recently asked about my thoughts on nozzles and it just so happens that I have a few opinions.
For 30 years I was on a nozzle or behind the guy with the nozzle, always at busy stations. Never once did I get into trouble inside a burning building with a fog nozzle in our hands on a hose line that was intact. Now, I have had my butt kicked and been driven out but as long as my line stayed with us, we never had a close call.
The key here is that the line remained intact! We got in trouble when our lines blew or got burned into. It is incredible how fast a fire can go bad when we suddenly quit putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.
I never thought of operating a nozzle to require extreme training, I always thought of it as basic training, beginning with:
1. We always have the most litres per minute we could handle on our line, available at the nozzle, not at the pump. At the nozzle puts us in control! At the pump puts them in control! I never want my crew’s life or my life to primarily rest in the hands of someone else!!!!!!!!! Our intent should be to overwhelm the fire so that the fire does not overwhelm us!
2. Bleeding your line serves two purposes, it removes air and confirms water.
3. Start at the base of the fire and move up.
4. Move your nozzle! (I always used a clockwise, whip it in a circular pattern)
5. Put the wet stuff on the red stuff; direct application is more effective than indirect application.
6. We should teach to wash a path on the floor ahead of them. You know, where there is a foot of red hot coals and they believe they can walk or crawl through them. This can be a self-correcting problem if they are not taught this early enough. Once their skin grafts heal, they normally do not duplicate this mistake. A good officer should not let this happen!
7. Gauge the movement of your nozzle to the extinguishment. If it’s not going out, slow the movement down.
8. Use your nozzle patterns, if you have a choice of patterns. I always taught my guys to let the fire dictate which pattern we were on at any given time. If you use nozzles that do not have pattern options, then you clearly need to train on what to do under different situations.
9. Use your water wisely, even after established water supply; fine tune your water application:
I am at nearly 38 years in, at least 36 of which we have used air packs. I have never destroyed a helmet or mask. I have worked with some of the best fire fighters in the city with thousands of fires under their belts, who used fog nozzles and got the job done.
Several years back, my own captain got caught in a flashover without a hose line. The day after as I left the burn ward, I called or visited with 11 active or retired fire fighters whom I had worked with. The 11 had a combined total of over 350 years of fighting fires at the busiest stations in the city. I asked them all the same questions. How many helmets and masks have you destroyed in your career, on one fire? One captain told me one helmet and one mask, which happened in a flashover that also required skin grafts. I then asked the question, what did you do, that allowed you to fight so many fires without damaging your gear. The overwhelming answer was, “Stayed low”!
Now that’s a unique idea. Stay under the heat and get it done! Be trained, Be safe!
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Some thoughts on nozzles written by Dale Jenkins, senior captain safety 24-A, Houston Fire Department, US (FRI Vol 3 no 11). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Some thoughts on nozzles
By Dale Jenkins, senior captain safety 24-A, Houston Fire Department, US
I was recently asked about my thoughts on nozzles and it just so happens that I have a few opinions.
For 30 years I was on a nozzle or behind the guy with the nozzle, always at busy stations. Never once did I get into trouble inside a burning building with a fog nozzle in our hands on a hose line that was intact. Now, I have had my butt kicked and been driven out but as long as my line stayed with us, we never had a close call.
The key here is that the line remained intact! We got in trouble when our lines blew or got burned into. It is incredible how fast a fire can go bad when we suddenly quit putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.
I never thought of operating a nozzle to require extreme training, I always thought of it as basic training, beginning with:
1. We always have the most litres per minute we could handle on our line, available at the nozzle, not at the pump. At the nozzle puts us in control! At the pump puts them in control! I never want my crew’s life or my life to primarily rest in the hands of someone else!!!!!!!!! Our intent should be to overwhelm the fire so that the fire does not overwhelm us!
2. Bleeding your line serves two purposes, it removes air and confirms water.
3. Start at the base of the fire and move up.
4. Move your nozzle! (I always used a clockwise, whip it in a circular pattern)
5. Put the wet stuff on the red stuff; direct application is more effective than indirect application.
6. We should teach to wash a path on the floor ahead of them. You know, where there is a foot of red hot coals and they believe they can walk or crawl through them. This can be a self-correcting problem if they are not taught this early enough. Once their skin grafts heal, they normally do not duplicate this mistake. A good officer should not let this happen!
7. Gauge the movement of your nozzle to the extinguishment. If it’s not going out, slow the movement down.
8. Use your nozzle patterns, if you have a choice of patterns. I always taught my guys to let the fire dictate which pattern we were on at any given time. If you use nozzles that do not have pattern options, then you clearly need to train on what to do under different situations.
9. Use your water wisely, even after established water supply; fine tune your water application:
- When your fires are small we want to limit the amount of water to prevent needless damage.
- When we get to the mop up stage, learn the indirect method of water application, the bank, the ricochet, the rain down. Learn to gate back, to pin point our water and use finesse. The owners will appreciate this.
- Control the amount of water after the main knock down of a large fire. Too much water makes ventilation difficult by overcooling the environment, which makes the air heavy and less buoyant. You will find yourself trying to crawl around for secondary search under a blanket of steam or fog making the completion of your assignment much more difficult.
I am at nearly 38 years in, at least 36 of which we have used air packs. I have never destroyed a helmet or mask. I have worked with some of the best fire fighters in the city with thousands of fires under their belts, who used fog nozzles and got the job done.
Several years back, my own captain got caught in a flashover without a hose line. The day after as I left the burn ward, I called or visited with 11 active or retired fire fighters whom I had worked with. The 11 had a combined total of over 350 years of fighting fires at the busiest stations in the city. I asked them all the same questions. How many helmets and masks have you destroyed in your career, on one fire? One captain told me one helmet and one mask, which happened in a flashover that also required skin grafts. I then asked the question, what did you do, that allowed you to fight so many fires without damaging your gear. The overwhelming answer was, “Stayed low”!
Now that’s a unique idea. Stay under the heat and get it done! Be trained, Be safe!