alt Hacker NewsOur engine holds 1200 gallons. It goes in first* and starts putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.
As the engine drives in it drops a 3" hose along its path. Next is our big tender with 3000 gallons. It stops at the street and connects to the dropped hose to pump more water up to the engine.
The tender also has a drop tank -- think about a portable kids' wading pool but much larger and deeper. Shuttle tenders refill the drop tank while our big tender draws from it to continue supplying the engine.
We don't have fire hydrants, so this is the dance we have to do.
* It's very important to park the engine close to the fire but not too close. Ask me how I learned this.
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Wow. We're probably more rural and can't fit such large apparatus in many places we have to go. Out our type 1 engine carries 1,000 gallons, and our type 3 (wildland) 500 gallons and our tenders have 2,000.
1,000 isn't going to put out a house fire unless it's really small and not fully involved. The past two good structure fires we had took 20,000 and 60,000 to gallons respectively.
How did you learned this?
Rural properties I'm familiar with required a 3,000 gallon water tank with fire-connection far enough from the main structure as to be accessible.
But ask the fire department how they'd approach your house, and put the hydrant on that road; it might NOT be the road/driveway you normally come up!
> It's very important to park the engine close to the fire but not too close. Ask me how I learned this.
I was a farm hand as a summer job to cover beer and books in my college years. We harvested wheat which carries a high fire risk. Most farms kept a tractor with a large plow hooked up so it could quickly encircle and contain any fires.
Pulling a 40’ wide plow is hard. Tractors can do it because they have huge engines that suck in huge amounts of oxygen.
Just like fires.
If you get a tractor too close to a fire it starves for oxygen and stalls out. The plow becomes an anchor. There’s just enough time to bail out before the tires catch fire. After a few minutes the whole thing is a pile of ash and melted steel.