Moving Lots of Water- (Pic Heavy)

donjr · May 6, 2012

Water supply drill, 150 volunteer and career firemen, 30 engines and tankers, 3 supply points. Attained 1800 gpm to dump site, average milage of about 3 miles per run. Apparatus from Maryland and Pennsylvania: seven counties in Md., three in Pa.

ShadetreeRet · May 6, 2012

Like you said, that's moving some water! I'm sure all that practice will pay off when the time comes.

Rich Iowa · May 6, 2012

Now that's moving a lot of water! Just got home from a call so interesting to see this post.

Ralph Bauer · May 6, 2012

Yeahh, they are fun. Back in my college years at Louisiana tech University in Ruston, La.(~90-93) The parish (county)created (voted in) a new county-wide volunteer department. Had a station (21) with at least one 2500 gal tanker pumper within 5 mi. radius of every structure in the county. Total T/P were 21, plus 75ft aerial boom, 3-4 Pumper/Tanker from other local departments that we incorporated. We ran a drill as well to qualify to a better insurance rating (was 9 and 10 in parish) and we made a 6 for a rural department (1 is best)! Pumped slightly more than2100/gal/min for 2 hrs, 2000 was the requirement. Then held the record for the largest water shuttle in the State of Louisiana...and lowest insurance rating for rural volunteer department in the State as well...ahhh those were the days!
Still volunteering with the Hester RVFD here in Hester, Oklahoma. Let the good times ROLL ....lol
A sentimental Ralph in Oklahoma.

Anonymous-0 · May 7, 2012

Had one of those for real, here in Ohio 2 weeks ago at a Fuel company fire. Every fire dept. in the county was involved. That was interesting,I was sitting at a red light, with fire engines and tankers coming to the intersection from all four directions at once, with lights and sirens, and them trying to decide which of them had the right of way.

Anonymous-0 · May 7, 2012

Interesting there is NO break in the double line for that area.Which means......?

wijim · May 7, 2012

No passing either direction

northvale · May 7, 2012

I bought my 1st hay wagon at a dispersal auction held on that farm, actually, at least 20 years ago. The next 'operation' was trucking, right?

El Toro · May 7, 2012

I didn't see any from Bel Air. I worked with several guys from Jarretsville FD. The late Thurmam Ellis was an EMT and was an Airborne Ranger during the Normandy Invasion. Bob Williams was another and he may have belonged to Whiteford. Red Voltz from Fawngrove. Not sure if he's still living. Hal

RayP(MI) · May 7, 2012

We had a serious downtown fire a few years back. They enlisted bulk milk tankers hauling from as far away as 30 miles away. Many departments now have beefed up their tanker fleets. Usually as soon as a page goes out, there's a call for adjacent department's tankers to assist. Almost all volunteer FD here.

donjr · May 7, 2012

314 and 388. 314 doesn't carry much water and 388 served lunch. Guys in Belair still think everything is hydrants. Bobby is still around, Thurman passed a couple of years ago, and I'm not sure about Red.

donjr · May 7, 2012

Yup. Been sold to the county about two years ago for parks and rec.

donjr · May 7, 2012

314 added- blurry. They was flyin-

Anonymous-0 · May 7, 2012

Yeah I know, usually they have a break to take away the illegality.

Rollie NE PA · May 7, 2012

I love a good tanker drill.
What type of driver training/certification do some of your depts. use?
Our dept. currently has all CDL drivers for the tanker. Some of the younger guys want to learn to drive the tanker and I for one refuse to train them.

Hal/Eastern WA · May 7, 2012

Neat! Some of those pumper/tankers sure have long wheelbases. I bet they are sometimes challenging getting in and out of driveways. They would take quite a bit of room to get turned around too.

Our fire district did a demonstration years ago where they used a number of tankers/tenders to supply a canvas dump tank that was being drafted out of by a large pumper. If I remember correctly they pumped over 1000gpm for several hours and got a better insurance rating for the district by completing the demonstration. Those tanker crews must have been really hustling!

It would be neat if there were good hydrants available everywhere, but in rural and semi-rural areas that is not going to happen. Whoever came up with the idea of using multiple tankers to supply a collapsible portable dump tank really had a clever idea. It allows a pumper to continuously have adequate water to fight a big fire. Sometimes you absolutely have to have a lot of water to have any hope of saving a building or protecting exposure.

Thanks for the photos!

Don-Wi · May 7, 2012

Last year the alfalfa mill in town was up in flames, had tankers from our county and several surrounding counties. 3 pull points, several dozen tankers going. All you could hear were sirens, but they were sure moving the water....

Good to know that if there's a fire there are that many departments to help out.

Donovan from Wisconsin

donjr · May 7, 2012

'B', doesn't have to be a CDL for fire units or farmers. Unfortunately, most of them now have trouble driving a nail, much less a truck. More than one scares the hail out of me- too much cowboy. We even had one idiot that took a $350K engine off roading to avoid running over a dam snapper! $20K+ damage to the engine. And that was just luck.

Moving Lots of Water- (Pic Heavy)

donjr

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ShadetreeRet

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Rich Iowa

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Ralph Bauer

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Anonymous-0

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wijim

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northvale

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El Toro

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donjr

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donjr

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Rollie NE PA

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Hal/Eastern WA

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