 In cities and towns all across the United States, fire departments have had years of experience using water effectively for fighting structural fires. Networks of fire hydrants and water mains provide quick access to a plentiful supply of municipal water. But what happens if you remove the hydrants and water mains? Spread the homes and businesses far apart, add country roads and terrain, dot the land with other types of structures, and plant trees and shrubs around the homes. This is a more realistic picture of the wildland urban interface, and it's the rapid growth in these areas that strains the supply of water for both residential and firefighting needs. In this program, we'll discuss the process of planning that needs to take place to ensure adequate and reliable water supplies in your region. Regardless of the locations, the regions of the country or the size of the community or fire department, planning is an important multi-step process. First, we'll show how to identify the minimum water requirements needed to protect each structure. Then, we'll take a look at sources of water and the ways to pump water from them. Special attention will be given to dry hydrants, one of the most successful methods for closing the distance between the water source and the burning structure. Finally, we'll go over some of the basic methods for delivering water to a burning structure. Your water supply officer can assist you in pre-fire planning. The water supply officer should be trained in calculating the water needs of a district, compiling reliable water supply information, and helping fire departments plan an effective attack based on existing resources. Before you think about such things as equipment needs and drafting methods, you need to determine how much water is required to extinguish a fire at each major structure in your area. You can calculate this amount once you know three pieces of information. The materials stored in the structure, the building's construction materials, and the size of the structure. Fire departments have long conducted pre-fire planning activities to determine emergency staging areas, chemical hazards that may be stored on the property, and the building's construction features. Planning required water supplies is a logical extension of that activity. By pre-planning the buildings in your area, you can classify each structure by its contents and assign it an occupancy hazard classification number. Flower mills and chemical plants, both extremely hazardous, rate a three. Commercial barns and stables come in at four, and apartments and schools measure seven. Next, analyze the building's construction materials. Assign a construction classification number based on the combustibility of materials. To calculate minimum water requirements, you need the structure's volume in cubic feet. Part of this survey also includes locating any obvious water sources. With this information, you can determine how much water you'll need to fight a fire. Let's take one example of a single family home. This single family home has an occupancy hazard classification of seven, a construction classification of one, and the volume of 14,400 cubic feet. Here are the calculated and pre-calculated water requirements for this structure. Once you've determined your water needs, locate your water sources using the notes you made during your survey. Potential sources include ponds and streams, cisterns, swimming pools, and above-ground tanks. A source to be used for firefighting purposes must be able to supply minimum water quantities and be located to minimize the distances that water tenders will have to travel between the source and the fire scene. Inspect your water sources periodically, noting any seasonal fluctuations, flood or drought conditions, access variations, or problems with freezing. What can you do if there are no existing sources of water? The least efficient, most risky, and most time-consuming solution is to haul water in from a distance. It's much more advisable to create a source near the site. Many departments have devised creative solutions to improve water resources. One community in Michigan used old underground storage tanks that had been cleaned out. The tanks were then reburied and used as cisterns with dry-hydrant connections. Cisterns often provide an expedient and cost-effective solution. They can be supplied by rainwater, wells, water tenders, streams, or rivers. Two frequent problems of water sources are accessibility to fire apparatus and distance from the at-risk structure. To improve accessibility, you might have a road built or use a portable pump. To handle the problem of distance, you might use water tenders to bring water from distant fill-up points, but this may be an inefficient solution. In both cases, a better solution may be to install a network of dry-hydrants, and it's one that more and more fire departments are adopting. A dry-hydrant is a non-pressurized pipe that's installed at a pond, lake, stream, or cistern, and is used to pull water by suction into a water tender. A strainer keeps out foreign objects. A properly designed network of dry-hydrants will significantly reduce the time it takes to deliver water from the source to the fire. Dry-hydrants prove faster and more reliable than direct drafting. Dry-hydrants leave a community's drinking water untouched, relying instead on unprocessed natural water. Installing hydrants also makes good tactical sense by reducing the potential fire loss and affording the fire department of an uninterrupted water supply. If located in cold regions, dry-hydrants can be used to access water below the frost line. When planning locations for dry-hydrants, you should select water sources that will provide a sufficient supply. Make sure the source provides adequate access and can support the weight of heavy equipment by discussing your requirements with local highway officials and your water supply officer. Talk to residents about the effects of droughts and floods or anything that might change the quality of the source. If the site meets your needs, obtain any necessary written permission to use it. Be sure to check with necessary federal, state or local authorities regarding the use of protected lands, bridges or navigable waterways. The site must be surveyed to ensure the source is deep enough so the strainer reaches below the lowest possible water mark and the total vertical lift is within the pump's capability to draft water. When you design the hydrant, consider the rate of flow required, pipe material and the size and type of water tender that will be used. Installing a dry hydrant is a technical procedure. If you plan to do it yourself, refer to this dry-hydrant manual and NFPA 1231. Sources for these documents will be given at the end of the video. Here are the key steps for developing a dry hydrant. First, dig a trench for the pipe using a backhoe. The ditch should be excavated beginning at the most distant point from the water, the riser location. The pipe and material should be suitable for the use and installed to manufacturer's standard. In some areas of the country, PVC pipe is being used for the construction of dry hydrants. However, in other areas of the country, brass or bronze caps and steamer connections are being used along with iron pipe elbows and risers. Pipe and material used should be based on local conditions. It is recommended that dry hydrants be constructed of six inch or larger piping and fittings. All connections should be cleaned and properly cemented so as to have all connections air tight. A strainer or well screen is needed for the suction end of the pipeline to keep foreign materials out of the pipe and the pumper using the dry hydrant. Horizontal and vertical portion, the pipe and riser, should be assembled and lowered in one piece. Backfilling should begin at the riser. It is suggested that the soil around the riser be tamped so it is rigidly supported with surrounding soil. At this point, it is necessary to have personnel in the water and place cement blocks, gravel or other permanent supports underneath the pipe in the water. A minimum number of 90 degree elbows, preferably no more than two are suggested to be used in the total system. Grass should be planted and kept trimmed and neat. All identification signs should be approved by the Department of Transportation prior to installation if they are to be on the right of way or come under state laws. Finally, perform a flow test to make sure the dry hydrant actually meets your fire flow needs. Inspect the site periodically and test the hydrant annually, backflushing to remove debris and sediment, followed by a pumper test at the maximum designed flow rate. Regular maintenance will help keep the water supply available for any fire emergency. Training is essential to teach all firefighters the proper use of a hydrant, and drafting should be a routine part of departmental drills. We want to watch how we position our trucks so that it's clearly that the tanker truck can get into them and fill them. We also want to designate a traffic patrol person that will keep this driveway clear and not get blocked so that the tanker can get in and fill the trucks. The goal in any firefighting operation is to deliver an adequate supply of water to the burning site in as short a time as possible. No matter what your source of water, quarry, lake or cistern, the amount of time it takes to deliver water can mean the difference between saving and losing a home. The delivery systems you select will depend on the specific conditions of the building site, including fire flow needs, any special hazards, the amount and location of the water supply and the mix of personnel and equipment. The four principal types of vehicles and equipment that will serve your firefighting needs are mobile water supply vehicles or water tenders, engines, trailer pumps and portable pumps. Because travel distance tends to be a crucial factor in rural areas, water tenders are considered essential equipment in most firefighting operations. Departments cannot afford to use equipment that's makeshift, substandard and unsafe. When you purchase or construct a water tender, make sure its specifications fit your situation and are based on the results of your surveys. Some key factors to consider are listed in the NFPA 1903 standard for mobile water supply fire apparatus. While many rural departments tend to use standard pumpers and tenders in the 1000 to 1500 gallon range, base your decision on the characteristics of your region and your actual needs. Think about terrain and road conditions. Make sure the water tender conforms to the load restrictions for all the bridges in your district. Make sure the water tender's design specifications match your requirements. Check the specs for the engine, chassis, baffling and brakes, as well as the vehicle's dimensions, weight distribution and turning radius. And finally, you need to determine if the water tender can carry enough water and be able to fill and dump quickly enough to provide an uninterrupted supply where needed. To calculate the maximum continuous flow, you need to know the time it takes to unload and fill the water tender, the capacity and the driving time. Each tanker is different and requires specific driver training. All drivers need to be trained on every piece of equipment they use. If you have water supplies that are difficult to get to or are otherwise unreliable, consider using portable pumps. One of the easiest to use is the floating pump because it doesn't require a strainer. Portable pumps should not be considered a permanent substitute for engines. They're great for accessing hard to reach locations, supplying firefighting hose lines and filling in when an engine is unavailable, but they cannot handle the volume or exert the same pressure as an engine. A number of portable pumps are available for handling different levels of volume and pressure. To determine which types you need, analyze the accessibility and reliability of your water supplies. Now, let's chart the basic delivery systems for hauling water from the source to the burning house. In all examples, we'll use dry hydrants for quick access to water sources that are difficult to reach. In the first case, the house is just a few hundred feet from the dry hydrant. The water tender drafts water from the hydrant, pumps it to the engine and the engine attacks the fire, or eliminate the water tender and the engine pumps directly into the hose lines. Large diameter hoses are increasingly being used with engines and trailer pumps. They can deliver more than 1,000 gallons of water per minute and transport water as much as a couple of miles. By using a large diameter hose with one engine, you can deliver the same volume that would ordinarily take several hoses and engines and more personnel. Rural fire departments typically depend on water tenders to transport water from the source to the side of the burning house. After dumping its water, the vehicle returns to the source to refill. If you have two water tenders, they can form a shuttle operation, providing fast and efficient delivery. While one vehicle unloads water at the house, the other is filling up from the source. Portable pumps can also be used to transport water to the engine, especially useful when a water tender cannot reach the water supply. They can be a good distance from each other as long as you use a large diameter hose. Offloading can be accelerated by using large dump valves or jet assisted dumping. And portable tanks and nursing operations can store the water until it's ready for use. A portable pump can also be used with a folding tank to handle an inaccessible water supply. The portable pump drafts water into the portable folding tank so the water tender can fill up quickly when it arrives. There are other variations on these distribution methods, but these should give you a feel for the possibilities. The methods you choose will be based on your needs and resources. Rural communities often face the dual burden of large-scale fires and limited funds for purchasing needed equipment. Because of limited firefighting resources, your plans should always include the development of mutual aid or interagency cooperation programs. They will enable you to call on outside help to fight large-scale interface fires. Strategic planning in all areas of firefighting is vital to a successful operation, but providing enough water and using it efficiently must receive special attention. The four-part plan outlined here will enable you to meet the water requirements of your area. First, determine the water requirements for each site. Second, locate or develop your water sources. Third, install dry hydrants. And fourth, plan your delivery and distribution systems. Once you have implemented all stages of this plan, you will have an efficient water supply and distribution system, and you truly will have improved your firefighting capabilities.