On September 27th, folks in Onondaga County, New York, spent the afternoon hauling water with tankers during a 2-hr rural water supply drill. The event was the culmination of our 16-hour Rural Water Supply Operations Seminar sponsored by the Lysander Public Safety Committee and hosted by the Baldwinsville Fire Department (Northwest Fire District). The seminar was our first one of 2020 due to the Covid pandemic and it was great to get back out on the drill ground....even with some restrictions in place.

The drill was run as a "water supply task force" event where the group assembled at a firehouse and convoyed to a fire scene where they had 10 minutes to get water supplied to a simulated fire scene. The folks did just that and never once interrupted their flow....other than having to respond to a large outdoor fire at a nearby farm....where they set-up a dump tank operation. Even though the drill was stopped at the 77-minute mark so everyone could go fight the nearby fire, a sustained flow of 500 gpm was achieved during the time period that the drill was in session. Instructors for the weekend were Mark Davis and Alan Butsch.

Many thanks to the folks at the Baldwinsville FD for the excellent logistical support and to Chief Mike Stock (Plainville FD) for planing out the 2-hr drill.