On July 20th, a bunch of folks from throughout Wheatland County, Alberta gathered to haul water for two hours using two engines, six tenders and one fill site. The drill culminated our 16-hr Rural Water Supply Operations Seminar that was sponsored and hosted by Wheatland County Fire Services. The first part of the weekend was spent reviewing the best practices of hauling water with tenders, which also included the concept of an attack tender and a rural hitch operation. The 2-hr drill was the chance for the participants to put it all together. They did a great job hauling water and never had an interruption in flow. The fill site was a WID irrigation canal and provided about a 6.2km round trip for the rigs hauling water. A peak flow of 1250 gpm (4700 lpm) was attained during the latter part of the drill. Many thanks to Fire Advisor Thomas Jukes for providing excellent logistical support. Instructors for the weekend were Mark Davis and Tim Legore.
Units:
Standard Tender 71, Standard Tender 77, Rockyford Tender 58, Strathmore Tender 1, Siksika Tender 1, Carseland Tender 8, Gleichen Engine 34, and Wheatland West Engine 9.
Setting up at the irrigation canal.
A box of cam locks ready to go for tender fill operations.
Day 1 practical skill work on dump tanks.
No suction strainer....better than an under-performing one when there is no other choice.
Learning about the best practices of using water transfer devices.
Reviewing fill connection options.
A two-dump tank operation was used to support the 1,000 gpm flow during the second half of the drill.
