2021 ANNUAL REPORT

33

EMERGENCY SERVICES

Frederick County Fire/Rescue Rural Water Supply Efforts

Many areas throughout Frederick County have fire hydrants hooked to the municipal water systems to support firefighting efforts; however, many do not. Typically, the absence of fire hydrants is located in the more rural regions of the County. Our firefighting tactics need to be adaptive and dynamic to handle both situations. Areas, where we provide fire protection not supplied with fire hydrants, are considered to be rural water supply operations. What is the difference in rural water supply operations? The primary initial water supply we utilize in these operations is carried on large water capacity apparatus called ‘Tankers’. Locations without fire hydrants have been pre- determined and warrant the automatic dispatch of these ‘Tankers’ which usually carry 3,000 gallons or more of water compared to a normal fire engine which carries only around 1,000 gallons of water. Our initial firefighting efforts are supplemented by these tankers until we transition to a more formalized water source. These water sources could include but are not limited to ponds, rivers, streams, dry hydrants, or regular fire hydrants in relative proximity. What is the difference between a regular fire hydrant I see along the street or a dry fire hydrant? Regular fire hydrants are connected to the municipal water system and have water in them at all times in some capacity which usually resides below the grounds frost line. Once these fire hydrants are opened, they receive a continuous water supply of various pressures from the municipal water supply. A dry fire hydrant is a non- pressurized pipe system permanently installed in water sources such as ponds, rivers, or streams that permits the withdrawal of water by drafting from a fire truck to provide a reliable water source for fire suppression close to the incident scene. In 2021 Frederick County Fire/Rescue spent many hours continuing to bolster the initiatives started in 2020 to improve the County’s rural water supply operations. These items included reevaluation of all water supply sites, plotting them with GPS coordinates, and having the lists added to and updated within our Mobile Data Terminals (Computers) contained on fire suppression apparatus. We also continued to make repairs to dry hydrants that included sites on Hamburg and Frostown Roads. Currently, there are 45 dry hydrants located within Frederick County. Efforts were put into the budget planning process to expand our current sites as well as add additional ones throughout the County to provide the highest level of service consistent with industry standards. We continue to evaluate and compare policy versus practice regarding industry standards and expectations regarding rural water supply operations. COVID restrictions did affect the organization’s ability to facilitate multiple drills as intended, but a large-scale water supply drill was conducted in Western Frederick County in November 2021. Frederick County Fire/Rescue’s mission regarding rural water supply operations is to provide rapid, efficient, expandable, and uninterrupted water supply to the non-hydrant areas of Frederick County, Maryland.