Portable Pumps

[KStoves]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum & this is my first post.

I'm a firefighter on a volunteer department and am supposed to be organizing a drill on portable pumps for next month. I haven't come up with any great ideas on what to do and was wondering if anyone here has done a good drill in the past or has some advice

Thanks!

[LaFireEducator]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum & this is my first post.

I'm a firefighter on a volunteer department and am supposed to be organizing a drill on portable pumps for next month. I haven't come up with any great ideas on what to do and was wondering if anyone here has done a good drill in the past or has some advice

Thanks!

One option would be a simple skills drill.

Make them take it from the truck to the water source, set it up, connect supply lines, start it, prime it and flow water.

Another option would be a demonstration drill where experienced members demonstrate the above, then put it back on the truck and let the newer members do it under the guidance of the experienced members.

Or you could have a drill where you focus on a specific skill such as setting it up, or priming it, or running a supply or tanker fill operation from the pump.

Another drill could be preventative maintainence.

[tree68]

Take a look at how you use your portable pumps. Or how you could use them in your area.

Once you're sure everyone is at least familiar with them (if they're total new to them, one training session isn't going to make them proficient), try setting them up in realistic scenarios, so you can see any pitfalls or problems and learn how to deal with them together.

Plus what the other guys said.

[RangerJake72]

basic maintenance, regular crank & runs, setting up, getting a draft, flowing water, post use maintenance. Maybe use them to supply water to a portable tank to draft from and supply a tanker, or to refill brush trucks. around here we use small portable pumps (like a Wick 80-H ~70gpm, or small 3" utility pumps ~250 gpm) for resupply of brush trucks on scene on wildland fires or prescribed burns

[BennyT373]

We recently did a drill utilizing portable pumps and how to conduct water shuttles. Great training

[KStoves]

Thanks for the advice guys! This has given me some good ideas

[firefighterbeau]

Not sure how well you work with your mutual aid dept's or if they have portable pumps, but another option would be to setup training with them so the members of all the dept's can use eachother's pumps for bigger incidents where a portable pump or two might be left at the fill site and you might have to use someone else's equipment.