A Study on the Durability of Fire Hoses of Fire Hydrants

Abstract

Although the number of fires has not changed considerably in recent times, property damage and casualties due to fires are increasing every year. Maintaining the performance of fire-fighting facilities installed in buildings has been emphasized for maximizing human safety and minimizing property damage caused by fires. As a result, since 2017, the maintenance of fire extinguishers throughout their service life, has been mandated. In case of a fire, initial fire extinguishing and fire spreading prevention are crucial. There have been no available measures for the maintenance and verification of indoor fire hydrants and outdoor fire hydrant hoses used for extinguishing fires and preventing combustion expansion. This study was therefore intended to present measures for ascertaining the service life of these fire extinguishers, by evaluating their firefighting abilities through sample analysis and case analysis of the fire hoses. Research shows that the degradation of performance of the fire hoses becomes evident between 9 and 10 years, so that 10 years of service life is considered appropriate for the fire hoses.