Members of the OFD over the last few weeks have taken part in the Westchester County Fire Training Center Instructors run “Weekly Drill Series”. The topic of this 3 part class was on Tanker, alternate & rural water supply operations. Many might not understand the real value of a dedicated municipal water system. Fire Hydrants to some are always just there, for others it’s a luxury.

Westchester County is a very complex area. The southern end of our county is essentially an extension of New York City, high rise buildings and a highly & densely populated urban area. You go 45 minutes north you encounter horse farms and countrysides. With that in mind, we (Ossining) are surrounded by 2 Fire Districts that rely on tankers and a Rural Water Supply outlook to accomplish fire suppression. We are extremely lucky to have one of the best water systems in the county.

This class put engine operators to the test improving and challenging them on thier knowledge of not doing things that we would call “normal”. Drafting from a lake or body of water, using porta-tanks or “ponds”, tanker shuttles, and relay pumping were all touched on in this course. Engine 97 took part in all 3 nights.

For us getting water for an incident is as simple as looking every 500 feet in certain areas for a fire hydrant. What if something happened and nothing came out of it? These are tactics that are touched on and trained on in these very seldom cases. We thank the County Fire Instructors for putting on this extremely necessary and “back to basics” course for our engine operators. Another way we remain ready for the unthinkable cases when our “norm” is not there.