Fire in Loon Cove today.

[DickR]

Originally Posted by TiltonBB

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At most waterfront houses there is not sufficient clearance to get to the lake. You also have to worry about septic systems, overhead wires Etc before you start driving through some yard you are not familiar with. It would have to be a pretty large yard because you couldn't be too close to the building that was on fire.

So, with "all that water, right there in front," what might access to it look like when the engine can't drive close to it? I imagine there are creative minds here and among those with fire fighting expertise to come up with something that might be quite useful for lakefront communities.

When a call comes in, the location of the fire would identify the location as waterfront. A pickup truck could be dispatched to carry a load of big drafting hose lengths to complement the few sections with a pump engine. If the engine, at closest approach, is too high above lake level, then some pumping power down closer would be needed. What might that look like? Sure, there would be some tradeoff between pumping capacity and mobility. There also would be a tradeoff between setup time vs time for others to make repeated trips to some hydrant location to refill tanks. If adequate pumping capacity weighs too much to be hand-carried or wheeled down to lakefront, what about a specially configured ATV with PTO connected to a pump? In many cases, that could be offloaded from a pickup, driven down to lakefront, and used to pump water up to suction at an engine. Such a vehicle could be of great use in winter when fireboats can't operate.