When an adequate water supply is not available in the vicinity of an incident, a large volume of water must be brought to the site. In these instances Simsbury will request mutual aid resources from the surrounding towns and employ a water shuttle. During a water shuttle, apparatus fill their tanks at a remote source, transport the water to the incident and deposit it in a collapsible drop-tank, and then an engine drafts from the collapsible tank to supply water for fire fighting operations. The goal of a water shuttle is to provide an uninterrupted supply of water that is of adequate gallonage to support fire fighting operations.

On the evening of July 16, 2007, the Simsbury Volunteer Fire Company along with the towns of Avon, Canton, Granby and East Granby, held a drill to exercise our water shuttling capabilities. The evolution was designed to mimic an actual incident as closely as possible. Hand lines from the initial attack pumper were deployed and crews began to flow water using only tank water onboard the engine. A second engine was then positioned and a tanker deployed its drop-tank and off-loaded its water, allowing the engine to begin to draft from the collapsible tank and supply other apparatus. At the same time, mutual aid tankers were brought in to begin the shuttle and other engines were assigned to secure remote water sources to supply the shuttle.

The aim was to establish two separate fill sites, effectively assign tankers to the fill sites to prevent delays so that a steady supply of water was always maintained, and to flow as many gallons-per-minute as possible over an extended period of time. A more detailed explanation of this process can be found on our other multimedia gallery page from last year's drill.

Clip 1

Simsbury's Engine 3 sets-up to draft from a pond. Once a draft is established water must be constantly moved through the pump in order to maintain the draft. A large-diameter supply line is deployed and tankers begin to arrive and be filled.

 

 

Clip 2

With multiple drop-tanks deployed, Engine 13 supplies other apparatus by drafting out of a drop-tank. Tankers continuously arrive and off-load their water, maintaining the supply.

Video by Cliff Williams