By:
Captain Vicki Fowler
Hyattstown Fire Station #9
Not
all of Montgomery County has fire hydrants in their neighborhood. As a
matter of fact, in Hyattstown Fire Station 9's first due area, there are zero
fire hydrants. That is okay as we can bring our own water or get water from one
of the local creeks, ponds, lakes or even pools.
In
order to ensure we are ready to handle fires in which we must bring, or “draft,”
our own water supply, we train regularly to stay proficient in this critical
skill set. The photos below are from a training we held the other day to
practice getting water to a variety of our units for a variety of fires.
One
of the pictures show Tanker 709 that holds 3,500 gallons of water. The
water is being dumped into a portable folding tank so that an engine can draft
the water out of the tank and into its own tank so that it can flow water
through the fire hose on the unit.
The
reason we dump the water into a portable tank, and not directly into the
engine, is so the Tanker can go and get a refill of water from a designated
location.
At
Fire Station 9 we also have brush trucks for fighting brush fires. They
are smaller and more agile and can go across fields much easier than our
engines. In several of the photos below, Brush 709B is drafting water
from the creek. Our firefighters are pulling the water out of the creek,
into its own water tank, and then using it.
All
personnel performed well on a beautiful day to train and ensure our operational
readiness.
