Well Chili I always call sprinklers air conditioning for firemen. Gotta keep them boys cool while they play with the superdollar trucks you know.
Funny thing is, the more expensive the truck is, the less firefighting gets done around here. I can think of 2 Districts sporting multiple $250,000 trucks with IAFF members out the tailppipe, who couldn't put out a Boy Scout Ca,pfire without pulling a second alarm. They damn sure got no idea how to draft a stream either, so the pumpers carry no hard line.
Go 10 miles west to 100% vollie companies, and you find trucks that cost less than half, what the IAFF specials do, carrying hard line and strainers along with attic pipes and water curtains who put fires out. Most of the vollie companies also run with female firefighters, and those girls are every bit the equal of male IAFF members if not superior to them. Vol companies don't even have to hold a Union meeting on the way to the fire.
Making wewee on the roof doesn't stop much fire when the red stuff is inside the roof, and char patterns on plywood and 2x4s tell a hell of a lot of story to a skilled investigator. The place had red cedar siding, and that only charred above breakthrough points. Of course filling the cellar with water accomplished a lot.
1 real fireman with an ax to punch a fog line through the overhead door could have knocked it down in minutes.
