Hood Piercing tool...

As all of you know, some vehicle fires can be a real pain in the butt, if going pretty good. Hood release cables burnt through etc. My deparment purchased the hood Piercing tool, and I will say this. It is great. I samcked the hood 2 times, the tool was inside the motor compartment, and the fire was out. And to go with this, after the fire was under control, I drenched the interior with this tool also. It works great, and I recommend it for all deparments that do not have it currently. And it takes up very limited space on the apparatus. If anyone has had a bad experience with this tool, let me know. Thanks and be safe.

John Williams
NRFF1/EMT
Clairton Fire Dept (swPA)

What brand did you buy? How much was it? How much does it weigh? What is the gpm?

Sounds like something I will bring up and look into.

The brand is Augustus, and the GPM I am almost certain of is 55GPM. The cost was in the area of 500 dollars, and it is foam compatible. The weight is in the ballpark of Id say.....25 pounds<----dont quote me, im not good with guessing weight. The toll free number is 1-888-299-9333.

The tool itself is around the length of a Halligan Bar, and it has a 1" hose, approximately 3 feet long that has coupling to attach ur preconnect or trash lines. Give them a call, and if you need more info, let me know. They due have a website, but at this time, I am brain twisted. Thanks and be safe.

John Williams
NRFF1/EMT
Clairton Fire Dept (swPA)

We don't have them, but I haved seen them used and I must say I was quite impressed. Although it was larger and was connected to 1 3/4" line and was about 50 lbs. One swing and the 8" peircing nozzle was threw the hood. It was swung like a sledge and just penetrated right threw. It was also a demo on a fiberglass hood of a tractor trailer w/ the same effect. The tool is awsome...

------------------
David DeCant
firefighter/NREMT-B
Originally Mantua,NJ
Presently Lindenwold,NJ(I'm not a member of any of this District's dept's.)

we made our own tool. it started out as a round hay bale tool to try to put out a hay fire from the inside out in order to keep us from having to rip a burning bale of hay apart. will it worked pretty good so we start trying it in other ways. it has worked well as a hood piercing tool and a ceiling and wall piercing tool. it is a 3/4" schudule 40 steel pipe with 20 3/16" holes drilled in it and a harden tool steel pointed tip welded on one end and a 3/4" connection on the other. pumps about 20 gpm but we have found that to work in most cases well with a 1" booster hand line as a back up
plus we run class a fire foam with it.