Kincardine fire hydrants not available for use while tower off-line, says public works manager

The fire hydrants in Kincardine are not available for use while the water tower is off-line for repairs until the end of September.

That's the word from Adam Weishar, public works manager, who clarified earlier reports that the hydrants were charged and could be used.

"With the standpipe offline, the hydrants are not available for use as we do not have the capacity within the system to maintain both potable water needs and emergency flow requirements," said Weishar.

He added that the municipality does not expect a lower level of service to be provided, "rather during this time, we are simply getting our water directly from the lake as opposed to a hydrant nearby."

Kincardine fire chief Kent Padfield said the fire department has a contingency plan for rural firefighting with no access to a water supply in the vicinity. The plan also addresses the event when hydrants are not available or when there is limited system pressure.
 

Both the Kincardine and Tiverton fire stations conducted training to ensure efficiency in the alternate water supply plan, he said.

 

"The plan includes the ability to pump water directly from the lake on the north side of the harbour, using one of our pumpers, and fill water tankers," said Padfield. "Our back-up water plan can fill a tanker in approximately two minutes. The tanker would then deliver the water to the scene."

He said the department is fortunate to have a water tanker in each station and a mutual aid plan with its neighbours to provide water shuttle assistance. "We can have many tankers supporting our operation in a very short time. Part of our contingency plan is to immediately call for tanker mutual aid."

 

The plan in the north part of the municipality is to fill tankers at the Bruce Energy Centre, said Padfield. The hydrants in this area are not part of the municipal water system.

 

"Rural firefighting involves using any water source close to the incident," Padfield said."Rivers and ponds can be used, if available. Our tankers carry portable drafting pumps to access water in rural areas.

 

"Our second contingency is to lay high-volume hose from the harbour to the fire scene. All our pumpers have hundreds of feet of four-inch or five-inch high-volume hose. This technique is called relay pumping."