This past weekend, GBW Instructors Alan Butsch and Tim LeGore led another successful Rural Water Supply Seminar in Charles Town, West Virginia. The seminar was hosted by the Jefferson County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, and brought 18 people from several area fire departments to learn best practices in hauling water. This class was fairly unique in that it involved a mix of conventional and vacuum tankers and folks got a chance to see both at work. It was also unique in that there was apparatus there from 3 states on Saturday (Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. The class was also enhanced by the presence of Mr. Larry Reber from Firovac Tankers who was able to talk about some of his pioneering work with vacuum tankers.

At the end of the 2 hour ISO drill on Sunday, 56,000 gallons of water got hauled by 7 tankers for an average flow rate of just over 500 gpm. Drivers were challenged by a hilly 3 mile round trip on narrow country roads, and the dump tanks even had to set on a slope - but we wouldn't expect any less from wild, wonderful West Virginia.

A complete summary will be posted in about a week or so.