Hauling Water - 1750 gpm in Pennsylvania Produces A New Member of the 1,000 GPM Club!
By President Mark Davis
July 19, 2018
On July 15th, units and crews from southern Chester County, Pennsylvania converged at the Herr's Snack Factory in Nottingham to haul water for 2-hours without interruption. The group was very successful and their success was awarded with being added to the GotBigWater 1,000 GPM Club. The 2-hour drill produced a peak flow of 1750 gpm during the last 30-minutes after starting out at 500 gpm at the 5-minute mark...all without ever interrupting the flow! The 1750 gpm flow tied for second place in most water ever flowed without interruption during one of our 2-hr ISO tanker shuttle drills.
The drill was the culmination of our 16-hr Rural Water Supply Operations Seminar which was sponsored and hosted by the Union Fire Co 1 of Oxford, PA. All classroom work was done at the Herr's Factory Visitor Center and all practical work was done on factory grounds. The support provided by Herr's was superb and illustrated an excellent partnership with community emergency responders.
Ten tankers and five engines were used to support the tanker shuttle operation and units hauling water traveled a 3.4-mile roundtrip. A complete summary of the drill will be posted in a couple of weeks. Instructors for the weekend were Mark Davis and Alan Butsch.
Units:
Union Engine 21-1, Union Engine 21-2, Union Engine 21-4, Union Tanker 21, West Grove Tanker 22, Avondale Tanker 23, Cochranville Engine 27-1, West Grove Engine 22-2, Po-Mar-Lin Tanker 36, Concordville Tanker 59, Kennett Twp Tanker 24, Longwood Tanker 25, Cochranville Tanker 27, Hockessin Tanker 19, Quarryville Tanker 57, and Union Ladder 1.
Union Engine 21-1 - Fill-Site Engine
Union Engine 21-4 (1250 gpm/1000 gal) operated as the attack engine.
West Grove Engine 22-2 (2000 gpm) supported dump site ops by supplying jet siphons.
Union Engine 21-2 (1750 gpm/1000 gal) operated as the dump site engine.
Union Tanker 21 (3000 gal/twin dump tanks) was first-arriving tanker.
West Grove Tanker 22 was second arriving tanker and conducted nurse tanker ops during the initial period.
Po-Mar-Lin Tanker 36 was the 1st tanker on the 1st Tanker Task Force.
Kennett Tanker 24 was the 2nd tanker on the 1st Tanker Task Force.
Quarryville Tanker 5-7 (Lancaster County 3500-gal) was second tanker on the second Tanker Task Force.
Cochranville Engine 27-1 operated as the second fill site engine.
Avondale Tanker 23 (3500-gal) was the third arriving tanker on the initial alarm.
Longwood Tanker 25-1 responded as part of the first Tanker Task Force.
Cochranville Tanker 27 responded as part of the first Tanker Task Force.
Hockessin Tanker 19 (Newcastle County, DE - 2500-gal) responded on the second Tanker Task Force.
Concordville Tanker 59 (Delaware County - 2500 gal) was part of the first Tanker Task Force.
The dump site crew works to get the siamese set-up for nurse tanker operation.
West Grove Tanker 22 pumps the double-clappered siamese while Union Engine 21-4 makes the transition to dump tank operation.
Three dump tanks are down and operating.
Two, good looking jet siphon streams.
Union Engine 21-2's crew works to get the fill site set up before the arrival of the first tanker.
All ten tankers were loaded using the exact same set-up....dual, 3-inch lines equipped with Storz quick-connect fittings.
Up to three tankers could dump at the same time...this reinforces the purpose of spreading our dump tanks when running large-capacity, side-dumping tankers.
The second fill site in operation.
All dump tanks were rigged with jet siphons to dump into the 3,000-gallon primary tank.
The final set-up used three, 3000-gal dump tanks and one, 4000-gal dump. The West Grove engine (yellow) drafted and helped run jet siphons.
