Station 3 Crew Practices Drafting Operations

Lake Jennings - The C-division crew at Lakeside's Lake Jennings fire station (fs3) spent the afternoon of October 26, 2010, practicing a water supply operation known as "drafting." This technique is used to "pull" water from a static water source as opposed to utilizing a pressurized source like a fire hydrant.

There are many areas of our fire district without established water supply infrastructure and fire hydrants. For incidents in these areas, drafting water with our Type-I (structural) or Type-III (wildland) pumpers is one option that is available. Additionally, we may respond with our Water Tender (tanker) and portable water tank to support fire suppression operations.

Fire Engineer Chris Downing (r) and Firefighter Shawn McKenna fill the 1600 gallon Port-a-Tank.

FF Shawn McKenna at the pump controls of Engine 3 as Engineer Downing supervises.

Story and photos by: Captain Scott Culkin, Lakeside Fire District