TL;DR
A fire department connection is the exterior inlet — siamese twin 2.5-inch ports or a single large-diameter Storz coupling — through which arriving fire crews pump water into a building's sprinkler or standpipe system to supplement its supply. NFPA standards dictate signage, height, clearance, and protective caps, and require periodic backflush testing because debris and vandalism commonly plug the piping behind it.
What it means
A fire department connection is the exterior inlet — siamese twin 2.5-inch ports or a single large-diameter Storz coupling — through which arriving fire crews pump water into a building's sprinkler or standpipe system to supplement its supply. NFPA standards dictate signage, height, clearance, and protective caps, and require periodic backflush testing because debris and vandalism commonly plug the piping behind it. Property managers see it flagged in annual fire-protection inspections when caps are missing or the swing check is frozen.
Where it sits in the glossary
Fire department connection is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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