Rapid Water Ad

[jbendick]

Ad from Rapid Water

 

[nfd2004]

John, I remember that ad. And didn't Rapid Water later become know, at least throughout the FDNY, as "Slippery Water". That didn't last very long because it made everything slippery to walk on.

 

[lucky]

It also created very little back pressure, causing the hose directly behind the nozzle to bend very easily.

 

[jbendick]

Willy it was slippery water prior to being called rapid water. Whatever you call it the area around the fire was a slippery mess.

 

[Ghetto Gladiator]

As I remember 290 liked it and the city stopped giving it to em, to expensive, they used alot but it give them smaller dia. hose. They overcame the kink problem a bit with the
1st length of rubber hose.

 

[svd385]

Wasn't this product first aimed at law enforcement for crowd / riot control, I think it was termed 'instant banana peel' because it made the area to slippery for the crowds to move.

 

[pauloghia]

Is Rapid Water the same basic stuff as the F-500 that engines carry now?

 

[68jk09]

As far as the line bending behind the Nozzle i remember Companies trying different solutions like a ten foot piece of rubber "1 1/2 or wrapping the 1st few feet behind the Nozzle w/rope to stiffen it .   

 

[*******]

The rapid water fill pipe was on top of the pumper right next to the booster fill pipe. We (82 engine) would ride with 6 ff's without rapid water. With the rapid water they would knock us down one man to 5. It was just a gimmick to cut down on our manpower. We would use the rapid water when we had a job, figured what the hell maybe it does something. But never really saw any difference. We would have to go down to 83 engine's qtrs to replace our used rapid water cans. A few times when filling the booster fill the water was put into the rapid water fill by accident. I was called down to the Boro, AC Cruthers Sr., and accused of sabotaging the rapid water for the extra man. Got a little hot, he laid the law down and that was pretty much it. Almost 40 years later I still think it was a bullshit charge. One day our rapid water mixer went oos. There was an engine company in Queens, slow engine, that for some reason had rapid water. So they had us switch our pumper with the Queens company so we would ride light, 5, until ours was repaired. We had their rig about a week' Caught a lot of work with this pumper. During the week we had 14 or 15 all-hands and 6 or 7 multiples. I was working a 6x9 and we had a third. Had 4 lines off the pumper. Middle of the job the pumper just shut down. Was like it had battle fatigue or something. I got a kick out of that. Felt bad for the old girl though as she was being towed away from the scene. We got our pumper back the next day. Lot of stories, memories, from those days. again, the best of times and the worst of times.   

 

[mikeindabronx]

Chief, thanks for the insight about the time you spent as Capt. of E-82 & rapid H2O