Newton Falls – Recently Station 43 in Newton Falls played host for an emergency training procedure involving area fire departments. Members of three different stations – Southington, Lordstown and Mesopotamia – joined the first responders from Newton Falls in a tanker shuttle relay to practice how to efficiently haul water from one location to another.
How it works: one fire truck pumps water out of the river into one of the waiting fire trucks designated to shuttle the water to a location across town. Once there, the shuttle truck dumps the water into a collapsible pool serving literally as a portable pond from which the fire truck that is actively working on extinguishing the fire can pull needed water. At the same moment, a second shuttle truck en route to the river balances out the response time opposite the first shuttle truck so there is a continuous flow of water to the destination. The shuttle trucks will go back and forth to the river to replenish the available water in the portable pond as long as is necessary.
This maneuver is valuable in situations where there is no vast water supply or hydrant within easy reach of a pumper truck trying to fight a fire. In an emergency such as this, local stations will be called in for mutual aid and will work together shuttling water from the nearest water source such as a river or lake to the area on fire. This assembly-line type method is a more effective way of fighting fires as the designated trucks on site spraying water don’t have to continually hook and unhook heavy hoses and can instead spend the time and present resources actively focused on the task at hand.
After the practice concluded, participants were invited back to the host station and treated to a delicious homecooked lunch provided by the ladies of the Station 43 Auxiliary.
See your favorite first responders in action again soon and come support them as they take on members from the police department in the 2nd Annual Battle for the City softball game on Saturday, August 27th. This year the stands are open to the public and admission is free, with donations going to support the local USO. Will the second time be the charm for the firefighters or will the badges in blue put up their shields and successfully defend their 2010 title? First pitch is at 4pm!
