Scoresby CFA Volunteer Fire Brigade has purchased a new piece of kit: a hose layer and recovery unit from the Dutch manufacturer Hytrans mounted onto a new truck. Scoresby is in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, 29 km from the CBD and the unit will have both rural and urban uses. A new feature for the CFA is the automated hose retrieval system, which has not been used anywhere in Australia before. It will speed up retrieval of the hose from the fireground faster than has been possible before allowing volunteers to return home or to the workplace faster. The unit will allow for a heavy 100 mm hose to be laid and retrieved, which would be too heavy for a man to handle. 5,000 litres of water per minute can be moved. It will be the first time that the CFA has used such a large diameter hose. Jim Read, Chair of the Scoresby Hose Layer Replacement Project said “Large diameter hose of 100mm is utilised across Europe, North America and Asia. We are bringing it to Australia.” Scoresby has chosen a unit that is designed to lay two 1 km lays, giving it the possibility of connecting to more than one remote water source at the scene of a fire. A middle wall in the container divides the hose compartment in two. The two hoses can be laid at the same time. The hoses can be laid at 40 km per hour (2,000 metres of hose in less than 5 minutes). One person in the unit is needed for the laying process. For recovery three persons are needed and hose can be retrieved at a speed of approximately 1 km every 30 minutes. Recovery goes via a hookarm facility, a hydraulic driven double roller unit. The hose is recoiled back into the hose beds inside the container. The hose recovery unit operator has the option of using a 2-speed control from a portable remote control panel while the truck driver drives slowly forward. Other Hytrans units store 150 -300 mm / 12 inch mm hose and can store up to 4000 metres of hose.