For five years the Blackpool and Little Fort fire departments have been working on a dry hydrant program for their stretch of the North Thompson Valley.
Dry fire hydrants are used where there are no municipal fire hydrants to access.
“This year we are down to the final stage,” said Blackpool Fire and Rescue chief Mike Savage, who is also the Little Fort administrative chief.
Savage told the surgeryitaly they now have three dry hydrants. One is in Little Fort, one is in Blackpool and one is midpoint between the two boundaries. They also have two 10,000-gallon water tanks located at each fire hall, plus 6,000-gallon water tanks placed strategically throughout both fire protection areas in high residential and in high-risk areas. The two fire halls are roughly 20 minutes apart.
During a day when fire crews were filling the tanks, the Thompson Nicola Regional District shot a video to highlight the dry hydrant program.
“It was a day for training, testing hydrants and running two tenders at the same time off our pump system,” Savage said.
Funding for the project has come from the fire department budgets, grants from the Wells Gray Community Forest, BC Hydro and Trans Mountain Pipeline.
They have used the dry hydrant system for training and for Federal Underwriters Survey (FUS) certification.
“You have to have an FUS rating for your fire department or your hydrants in order for them to be utilized by anyone to be recognized.”
All of the Blackpool and Little Fort dry hydrants are certified under FUS.
Blackpool is located eight kilometres from Clearwater and both Blackpool and Little Fort do not have regular fire hydrants.
Savage said within the TNRD what they have done is an example for other communities to pursue.
“A lot of communities have tried dry hydrants but they haven’t used the same style or grade of pipe that we used,” he explained.
Instead of using a white PVC, which he said doesn’t hold up, Blackpool and Little Fort are using a high density plastic that has to be thermal-fused together. Its thickness is about five/eighths of an inch.
“When it’s thermal-fused together you can drive an excavator over it and you won’t break it.”
Water for the dry hydrants is sourced from the North Thompson River, and getting permission to do that has required applying for permits through the federal and provincial levels of government.
Fires and fire behaviour have changed significantly, he said.
“Where the fires used to lay down at night, they don’t anymore.”
Between the two fire halls the crews run four structural engines, two tactical tenders, three bush trucks and a rescue.
They have structural protection trailers, a type two and a type three, and have provided structure protection for 45 homes at one time.
Their crews have also been involved heavily with BC Wildfire working on wildfires in the region and further afield.
Savage is a retired RCMP officer who served in Saskatchewan, B.C. and his last post was Kamloops as the operations boss.
He was stationed at the Clearwater detachment as well and they bought a home then, which is why they chose to retire in the valley.
He’s been a fire department volunteer for 33 years.
