On Sunday 24 July, brigades in Casey Group (District 8) participated in a relay pumping practical exercise based at the Monash University Berwick campus flowing into the car park of the Nossal High School.
With the scope of the exercise being relay pumping and resource efficiency, a range of vehicles attended with the main focus of the exercise being to deliver a sustainable water capacity over a total of 650 metres from Monash University’s four outlet booster point through to the Dandenong Ladder Platform.
The initial set up consisted of a traditional pumper relay involving twinned 64mm hose lines laid over the distance between a total of 6 vehicles. From the boost point, this included Berwick Pumper (Type 4 Heavy), Narre Warren Pumper (Type 3 Medium), Hampton Park Pumper (Type 3 Medium), Narre Warren North Pumper (Type 3 Light) and Beaconsfield Pumper-Tanker which then supplied Dandenong Ladder Platform. Overall, a total of 44 lengths of hose were used to achieve the relay over the 650 metre distance. As the base pump, Berwick Pumper showed 730kpa on their compound gauge and was delivering a total of 1800 litres per minute at 1300kpa.
Once the relay was optimised and statistics were recorded for each of the vehicles involved, firefighters then began the opportunity of introducing Scoresby Hose Layer to place a single 100mm hose lay over the same 650 metres. On this occasion, Berwick Pumper remained as the base pump and supplied water into the single 100mm hose line which ran to Dandenong Pumper 2 who then supplied the Dandenong Ladder Platform. With this set up established, Berwick Pumper had 695kpa on the compound gauge and was delivering a total of 2700 litres per minute at 1000kpa. Meanwhile, at the other end of the hose lay, Dandenong Pumper 2 had 200kpa on the compound gauge and was able to discharge 2700 litres per minute at 1300kpa.
Simultaneously to the second part of the hose lay, Clyde Big Fill relayed water from another hydrant on the same water main to two 2.4C tankers who then supplied a ground monitor. This provided an opportunity to test the 100mm relay and evidenced a negligible reduction in water supply and capacity.
Overall, this gave members the opportunity to observe the increased functionality of using Scoresby Hose Layer as an appliance utilising a wider diameter hose and considerably fewer resources. It was a great opportunity for members, in particular potential Incident Controllers to view an effective means of delivering water in the most efficient way for both urban and rural applications.
The exercise was also a good opportunity for brigade members to view vehicles within Casey Group as well as those from neighbouring groups. A special thanks to the career staff from Dandenong and the volunteers from Scoresby for their efforts throughout the day. Thanks also to Lieutenant Blair from Berwick Fire Brigade and Lieutenant Goodman from Narre Warren Fire Brigade for their planning and efforts throughout the day.
All members who attended the exercise finished the day by thankfully enjoying lunch prepared by the Narre Warren catering team.
The brigades who attended included Beaconsfield, Berwick, Clyde, Dandenong, Devon Meadows, Hampton Park, Narre Warren, Narre Warren North, Scoresby, Tooradin and Warneet-Blind Bight.
Author: Craig Durdin