These SOPs describe Lebanon's procedures for providing water at locations which do not have a nearby hydrant. The result of implementing these procedures and demonstrating our proficiency at performing the procedures is that all residents of our fire district and within 5 miles of our station receive the lowest possible insurance rates regardless of whether a nearby hydrant exists. In essence we proved to state auditors that as a result of our tanker shuttle operations, we can operate as efficiently as another department which uses hydrants and has the same rating.
Keeping these low ratings requires considerable training, practice and SOPs describing how we handle a water shuttle. It means that all members need to be familiar with our procedures. Driver/Operators need to demonstrate that they can perform their required tasks as part of their check-offs, and a number of training drills will exist each year to keep everyone in practice.
At a fire scene, the incident commander will initiate our water shuttle procedures whenever the fire is large enough that our en route water (generally in excess of 10,000 gallons) may not be adequate for suppression of the given incident. Our procedures allow our drivers to transition seamlessly from the water each of our engines carry to water pumped to them from other engines or tankers to the use of dump tanks and back in any order without ever affecting the water they deliver to the firefighters extinguishing a fire.
The links below, link to procedures we use during out state audits. We use the same procedures during drills practicing for a state audit and whenever the incident command determines a water shuttle operation is needed based on the size of an incident.
Initial Attack Site Apparatus Positions
Mason Road Draft Site Tasks - Dry hydrant
Mason Road Draft Site Tasks - Floating Strainer
Hydrant < 60 psi static pressure or < 1000 GPM flow fill site tasks
Hydrant > 60 psi static pressure and > 1000 GPM flow fill site tasks