On Saturday, members from all the fire departments in Orange County as well as members from Noth Chatham Fire Department met in Cedar Grove for our quarterly training session. The topic of the training session was rural water supplies and how to obtain water from ponds, lakes and streams when the fire truck can't get close enough to draft water.
Using two different Turbo Draft devices and four different scenarios, we filled tankers as we would for a fire in the rural portions of the county where no fire hydrants exist.
We had to overcome issues associated with low water levels in the ponds along with grass and debris blocking the strainers.
This training was our first using the Turbo Draft devices but more training sessions will happen as we continue to practice and become more efficient with them.
Thank you to Cedar Grove Fire for the location and use of your equipment.
We want to thank all of the departments and their personnel that participated. It was a long day but resulted in good training expeiences that will make us better.
We also want to thank Pete and David for their pictures and drone coverage.