April 19, 2010; Springwise.com | Ever wonder what becomes of old fire hoses (or more so, what that question has to do with the charitable sector?) Turns out a British company, Elvis & Kresse, is turning the “condemned” hoses into a line of high-fashion bags, belts and other accessories. It then donates 50 percent of profits from its fire-hose fashions to the UK’s Fire Fighters Charity. In addition, the company is supporting two initiatives to benefit coffee growers. One is to build what the company’s website describes as “a spent domestic water filtration system” in Nicaragua and the other to build “accommodation, kitchens and lavatories in Guatemala.”  Nice to see that fire hoses that would otherwise go to waste are heating up the imagination of one public-minded company.—Bruce Trachtenberg