At our regular bimonthly training on Monday, November 28, 2022, members trained with new Rescue Engine 6, flowing water through Master Streams. (Master Streams are appliances designed to flow large quantities of water. They’re used on larger fires where the axiom is “Big Fire, Big Water”. Locally, a recent example of a large fire requiring Big Water was the Family Dollar fire, in Washington Square, nearly a year ago.
It’s necessary members, especially our drivers, become familiar with the operating characteristics of both the new Rescue Engine and the ground-based monitor nozzle, seen in these photographs. This appliance is new to us and has slightly different features than the ones we’ve been using and are still carrying.
At this drill, several valuable observations were made. It’s important to note, we drilled at the end of Talbot Boulevard, in Radcliffe Industrial Park. The water main here is a “dead-end”, which… everywhere… not just here, is known to provide limited water pressure. Water pressure is closely linked to the GPM (gallons per minute) we can move from point A to Point B. More pressure equals greater GPM. From where we were drilling, If you’re familiar with the town, you know that one of the town’s municipal standpipes (large town water tank) is just over the hill from us, back by Foxley Manor. These standpipes are what provides pressure in the mains for water to come out of your tap. Despite being only about 250 yards away, the piping is not direct. It goes out to and down Washington Avenue, turns down Morgnec Road (Maryland 291 Bypass), then into Radcliffe Industrial Park on Talbot Boulevard. Still, with no load, no water moving, we were getting about 60 psi (pounds per square inch) which is respectable when there is no demand on the system.
On a dead-end main, when you start adding demand to the system, you’ll quickly max out what you’re able to do. In this training evolution, with our tower ladder flowing two elevated Master Streams, and the ground-based monitor flowing at recommended capacity, we were providing about 1100 GPM to a simulated fire. However, this was very close to maxing out what the water main coming into Radcliffe Industrial Park can provide.
At the Family Dollar fire, this is the obstacle we ran into. The municipal water system at Washington Square is at the end of the system. The required fire flow (amount of water needed to gain control of the fire) exceeded what the water mains could provide. Incident Command compensated by quickly implementing a supplementary tanker shuttle. Should one of the large commercial buildings in Radcliffe Industrial Park take fire, the potential fire flow here could quickly exceed what the municipal water system is able to provide. By identifying this deficiency during a training scenario, fire managers can early anticipate water supply problems and make allowances for it. This would probably entail a similar solution to the Family Dollar fire… a tanker shuttle.
