| The Monday drill topic for July 21 was drafting and hose work, conducted in conjunction with our neighbors at the Cumru Twp FD. The drill consisted of establishing a tanker shuttle, with a dump site at the Gouglersville Fire Company lot and a fill site on Lancaster Ave. TSFRS Engine 85 was the pumping engine, taking draft from two foldatanks which were in turn supplied by TSFRS Tanker 85 and CFD Tanker 42. In addition to pump operator training, TSFRs newer members were able to practice hose and nozzle operations.
For those unfamiliar with this process, a foldatank is essentially a portable "aboveground pool" albeit much more robust and built with a collapsable aluminum frame. They are generally heavy and require several members to remove from a tanker and set up. Two are placed side by side which allows one to be used by an engine to suck (or draft) water for firefighting while its neighbor is filled by a succession of tanker trucks. The two tank are then joined by a large hose equipped with a jet siphon to allow water to flow from one to the other. This evolution is commonly used in rural areas not equipped with fixed water systems equipped with hydrants. |
