Tank to Pump

Nozzles & Equipment

Fire Department Connection

FDC

A fire department connection is the inlet on a building where an engine pumps water into the standpipe or sprinkler system. It lets the pump boost a building's fixed fire-protection piping.

Schematic of a Fire Department Connection: a brass casting with two female swivel intake inlets and spring clappers, a supply line threaded onto it, and an arrow showing water flowing inward into a building riser system; toggling to a discharge outlet swaps in a single male-threaded stub with the arrow reversed to show water leaving the apparatus.

Fire Department Connection · interactive

SUPPLY INfemale swivelThis is a live Fire Department Connection: female swivel intake threads with clapper valves. You thread your supply line ONTO it and the pumper pushes water INWARD, into the building's standpipe or sprinkler system. The clappers hold the other inlet sealed so a single line still charges the system.

Connection

A live FDC has female swivel intake threads and spring-loaded clappers. Thread your supply ONTO it and the pumper feeds water INWARD to the building system; the clappers let one line charge it without back-flowing the open port.

A live FDC is a SUPPLY inlet — female swivel threads and clappers, water in. A male outlet sends water out. When you supply one off a pumper, the hydrant or relay behind you holds roughly 70 psi static before you boost it. This is a training aid; markings, threads, and procedures vary — follow your SOPs and the building's own signage.

Toggle between a live Fire Department Connection (female swivel intake threads + clappers, water flowing IN) and a male discharge/test outlet (water OUT) — read the thread gender to tell which way the water is meant to flow.

The FDC is how the engine supports a structure's built-in system. The operator pumps into it at a pressure that accounts for the system's own allowance, the attack hose inside, and a floor's worth of elevation for each level climbed.

Getting the FDC pressure right matters because the crew operating off a standpipe outlet upstairs has no view of the panel. The pump discharge pressure is what determines whether their line has what it needs.

Where this shows up

See also