Water Supply and Tender Operations

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Permalink Reply by Austin Carr on July 8, 2015 at 8:38pm

Any fires requiring more than 1 tanker load for extinguishment and overhaul we try to keep all tankers on the roads and out of driveways when possible. Most common scenario involves 1 to 2 dump tanks and a 1 hard-sleeve jet siphon for water transfer between tanks. For larger fires we have set up multiple dump tanks either in a line on one side of the roadway or staggered if more space is available. This allows more tankers too access our dump areas and for quicker offloading. Nurse tanker operations where one tanker will stay onscene and supply the attack engine(s) have been used with great success as well. In this scenario supply tankers offload via LDH lines directly into the nurse tanker. 

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Permalink Reply by Dan Rice on July 24, 2015 at 10:04pm

For our department we operate a water shuttle for every fire being we only have 24 hydrants in our entire 72 square miles. Tanker operations are extremely dynamic being we can go from a state route to a dirt road in a quarter of a mile. Generally as Austin noted we attempt to keep the tankers on the road during the entire operation. As with anything on a fire ground this doesn't always happen. We utilize dump tanks, generally no more than two (Due to limited space) and complete a shuttle from an established draft site with an engine on location. Often if manpower allows an individual will be put in charge of water supply and operate disconnected from the incident commander unless additional resources are required.  IF for some reason a tanker shuttle will not be productive, we utilize a rural hitch. Two tankers feed the main engine at two different pressures through a Siamese wye. Once the one truck empties then the pressure from the other unit takes over and there isn't one moment of water missed. Then you simply move the next truck into place while the other is pumping off. Actually pretty cool to watch it work. 

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