Backflow prevention?

[Gallonspermin]

A water works dept worker read an article about a FD pumping foam into a Town's water system, OOPS . I did not see the article but now he is wondering if we should put some kind of Backflow device on our hydrant hose or on the Trucks.
has anyone else encountered this?


By the way, we are talking small town, Vollie dept

[Chief 66]

Exact same thing happened here in Lancaster PA.

Our muncipal water folks read the same article in a water works trade journal (about a real bad contamination incident with an ARFF vehicle in Charlotte NC) and wanted every single FD in our area to equip every unit with these devices, along with a host of other restrictions on use of municipal water for firefighting activities.

Amongst other revelations, they told us that those red and yellow things along the roadway with 3 outlets and caps were not what we thought (fire hydrants) but really were "water flush-out devices" for the water department use, and if we happened to use them for a fire, it would be OK, but they made no guarantee that they would work or flow water. They really said this in an open meeting, I didn't make this up!

We had a joint meeting, gave the fire service side of this nonsense and informed them that none of our fire apparatus were configured like the Charlotte ARFF foam airport crash unit. Not even close.

It's now back in their court, and we are hoping to get some real good communication with them and work together. They had no real idea of how our fire apparatus were configured or what our operations entailed.

[tfogle]

We just got 'em.

We do have a slight possiblity that "dirty" water could backflow into the domestic system, but there are policies in place to prevent it. Now there are more.