My name is Stan Coulthard, I’m a career firefighter with twenty-five years on the job. Though I love what I do, like all firefighters I have had to pay a heavy physical price. Both my shoulders have been completely replaced, my right knee has had a new ACL tendon and meniscus repaired. The doctors also had to remove three wrist bones from my right hand. All these injuries are considered chronic damage from lifting and moving heavy loads, Osteoarthritis.
Around twelve years ago I had enough of how we fight fire! Not only are we literally destroying our bodies, but we are also destroying the very properties we are risking our lives to save. On average any structure fire we extinguish before the fire destroys the roof, there is far more water damage than fire damage! I decided to invent a better way to fight fire. It has been an incredibly difficult journey, and crazy expensive! I have an issued US patent, and one pending. I now have manufacturing partners, and I am starting to introduce my new fire nozzle system to the fire service.
The Tac4 Nozzle System will be one of the most used tools on your Engine. The modern fire service has a compliment of hundreds of tools stored in our Engine compartments. Other than a few, like the pike pool and the Halligan, most of our fancy tools wear out, only from sliding around in the compartments.
My Tac4 Fire Nozzle System has four purposes it is used in structural fires, wildland fires, it is used for decontaminating firefighters and equipment after fires and is the perfect general-purpose nozzle for putting out small nuisance burn complaints. My very simple innovation will reduce the amount of water we use to extinguish fires by ninety percent, and literally takes away eighty percent of the hard physical labor of fighting fire. The fire service in America is approximately eighty percent made up of volunteers. There is a chronic shortage of manpower. My nozzle system can improve that problem by reducing the manpower needed to effectively fully extinguish fires.
This very safe, simple and inexpensive tool can be used on any fire apparatus without any changes. It will save the property insurance industry literally hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The workman’s compensation industry will also save millions a year since my nozzle system directly impacts the two leading causes of firefighter injuries.
A call to action!
Firefighters reading this please pass this link out to as many fellow firefighters as possible. Our countries firefighters deserve the safest work environment we can provide, and our taxpayers deserve the best service possible. Property insurers buy one to donate to your local volunteer fire department, they deserve a safer way to fight fire and save property damage. Workman’s compensation insurers and Risk managers please pass the information on to the fire departments. One incredibly progressive company has paid reimbursements to fire departments that purchase the nozzle system, since it’s a much safer way to fight fire. Please share this information with your colleagues and let’s make our first responders safer and save unneeded property damage.