By Georgie Hore
Over 40 years of experience in the Country Fire Service (CFS) has taught Mundulla’s Brian Wiese a thing or two about fighting fires.
His experience and a spark of innovation helped Brian develop a new invention, which is now being trialled by CFS brigades across the State.
The ‘Keyhole Nozzle’ – a water-efficient fire hose nozzle – is designed to deliver water more efficiently and effectively, by reducing water loss and spray drift.
Brian says traditional CFS nozzles produce “small driftable droplets”, which cause firefighters to waste huge amounts of water.
“I have found we are losing up to 80 per cent of our water because of the drift situation. Therefore, we are losing eight firetruck loads out of every 10 – that is shocking,” he said.
CFS veteran Brian Wiese
Brian believes suppression of a fire can be achieved with as little as one litre per metre, saving firefighters both time and water.
The design of the Keyhole Nozzle uses larger droplets to a wider pattern, which allows more power behind the spray and less drift.
“Farmers have found with boom spray operations that if their spray equipment produces large amount of driftable droplets, then the same applies for fire fighting nozzles,” Brian said.
“Farmers now use larger nozzles that produce less drift and are more efficient at getting more volume of water to the target.
“We needed to learn how the same could be applied to fire fighting and reap the benefit of a higher water percentage at the base of the fire where it will be used for maximum effectiveness.”
Inventor Brian Wiese demonstrates his ‘Keyhole Nozzle’
The fire hose nozzle has taken Brian over four years of research and testing, on top of the design of a Wild Fire Impact Effective Supression Effort (WIESE) calculator.
The calculator accounts for factors such as speed and size of the truck, wind speed and temperature to estimate the amount and speed of water to supply to a fire per metre to most efficiently extinguish the blaze.
Around 25 Keyhole Nozzles are now being tested around SA.
If the trials continue to be successful, Brian’s design is likely to be rolled out across the state.
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