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Members of the Loveland Fire Rescue Authority and other local firefighters gathered at a house in south Loveland Wednesday morning to test out a new piece of equipment that will be coming to Loveland sometime soon.

Crews were able to train with an ultra high pressure water pump — a new piece of equipment the department recently purchased — during a live fire training at a donated house.

LFRA Battalion Chief Jason Starck said the UHP water pump is a firefighting tool that is used more frequently in other countries but is newer in the United States.

“We are one of the only countries that doesn’t use ultra high pressure on the extinguishing process,” he said.

Starck said the UHP method of delivering water is different than that of a traditional fire engine. While a traditional engine can output thousands of gallons water in a large bunch, a UHP rig is meant to attack small areas of fire quickly to try and knock it down before it grows. Traditional engines blast out around 200 to 210 pounds per square inch of water per minute, while UHP rigs can blast water at 1,600 psi per minute, Starck said.

Starck said the UHP rig sprays out 20 gallons of water per minute versus 2,000 gallons per minute, but instead of flooding an area in large water droplets, the new pump sprays with smaller water droplets in a more confined fashion.

Training Division Chief Eric Klaas said the science behind this can help bring down small fires faster, saying that if a water droplet is too small it turns into steam before hitting the fire but if it is too big it doesn’t absorb any heat and just falls to the floor.

Klaas and Starck said the new pump, which will be placed on a truck that will be driven by a team of two people out of Station 6 in eastern Loveland close to Interstate 25, will have a number of benefits from faster service to improved fire suppression.

“To the person that has the unfortunate experience of having a fire in their home, the damage will be much less from water damage because we are controlling our water delivery in a more controlled fashion,” Klaas said.

“This is the next scientific step for us,” Starck said, adding that the UHP pump could be set up and in use in under a minute to knock down a fire before it grows too large.

Matt Cowden, director of sales and marketing for Pyro HMA (the company the department bought the pump from) and a fire department lieutenant in Middleton, Wisconsin, said the point of these instruments is to help officers knock down fires faster before they grow in size rapidly.

He said that in the fire service, time is of the essence and the UHP rig will be an addition to that.

“It’s not (meant) to replace any of the current gear, it’s meant to fill a gap,” he said.

Greg Ward, division chief of risk reduction and readiness for the department, said the pump they have purchased will not be replacing any of the current equipment, but will instead be used to handle fires from the outside of structures quickly.

“We want them to hit the fire from the outside and get a quick knock on the fire,” Ward said, adding this pump will be placed on a new truck similar to that of the departments wildland fire vehicles that the department is currently waiting on receiving.

Ward said LFRA has purchased one pump that cost approximately $32,000, plus the expense of the truck it will sit on. He said the decision to get the truck came as Station 10, being built near Johnstown Plaza just east of Loveland was nearing completion and needed a company assigned to it.

Ward said that in discussions with other local agencies near Station 10, LFRA decided that an engine will be moved to Station 10 from Station 6, leaving that station with just a ladder truck. He said that in trying to figure out what unit should be placed there to complement the ladder truck, a demonstration of a UHP rig caught their attention.

“It all fell together,” he said. “It’s really to complement our … companies down in that I-25 area.”

While the pump has been purchased, the department is currently in the waiting stage to get the truck that it will sit on. Ward said that due to national supply chain issues, they are not able to get the actual chassis of the vehicle that the pump will be placed on.

When it does arrive at the department, Ward said it will be used for quick response for incidents in the area from fires to traffic collisions to even medical emergencies.

Crews from LFRA were joined by the Berthoud Fire Protection District and Mountain View Fire and Rescue to practice training with the pump system Wednesday during a live fire test on a house that was donated to the department.

Throughout the morning and into the early afternoon, crews set fire to different rooms using the UHP to knock down the smaller fires before lighting the entire house ablaze to burn and collapse inwards.

Mountain View is among the few departments in the area that have utilized the system over the last few years.

Aaron Peavey, division chief of training for the MVFR, said the department has used UHP tools for the last few years, now with two rigs outfitted with the pumps. He said he has heard from crews that the equipment is great to use to handle incidents quickly.

“The strategy is light and fast,” he said. “The quicker we can get a hit and knock the fire down the better the chance we have to contain it.”

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