Tank to Pump

Water Sources

Standpipe

A standpipe is a building's built-in vertical water pipe with outlets on each floor, so crews can connect attack lines inside instead of stretching hose up stairwells. The engine supplies it through the fire department connection.

Schematic of a pumper feeding a building standpipe: an engine and FDC at the riser base, a vertical water-filled standpipe column climbing a multi-floor building outline, and a live fire-floor line tapping off partway up. A readout shows the required pump discharge pressure rising as the fire floor rises, while the fire-floor outlet demand holds until the attack-line flow is opened up.

Standpipe / FDC · interactive

OUTLET IN RANGE147 psi PDPThe fire-floor outlet demand is below the caution ceiling. Notice the PDP at the pump keeps climbing as the fire floor rises — that is the system allowance and the per-floor elevation stacking up below the hose valve, which is correct, not over-pumping.

  • Outlet demand102
  • Attack friction52
  • System allowance25
  • Elevation20

The required PDP at the FDC stacks the fire-floor outlet demand, the standpipe system allowance (25 psi), and 5 psi for every floor above the pump — computed by the same engine the Standpipe calculator uses. The outlet ceiling (175 psi) lives at the hose valve, not at the pump, so the PDP can climb floor by floor while the outlet stays in range. These are training estimates; real systems vary by age and maintenance — follow your SOPs.

Drag the fire floor up the riser and watch the required PDP at the FDC climb — each floor adds elevation below the hose valve. Then open the attack-line flow to push the fire-floor outlet toward its caution ceiling.

Standpipes make high-rise and large-building firefighting possible by carrying water up the structure. The crew connects to an outlet near the fire floor; the engine below pumps into the FDC to feed the whole system.

Supplying a standpipe means budgeting for the attack hose, the system's own pressure allowance, and a floor's worth of elevation for each level climbed. Elevation can become the largest single term in the pump pressure.

Where this shows up

See also