Welcome to the Official Website for GBW Associates, LLC.
GotBigWater is the official website of GBW Associates, LLC, a privately owned training, consulting, and design firm located in Westminster, Maryland. Our specialty is water supply for public and private fire protection. We at GBW Associates, LLC are known for our training programs, our consulting services, our dry hydrants, and our testing services. Over the years, we have completed projects in over 42 different states and Canada ranging from rural water supply and incident command seminars to ISO water supply assessments to community master planning.
Use the menu at the left to take a look at our services and to contact us. Be sure to check out the News Archive and Big Water Information sections for a whole bunch of information on water supply delivery operations.
Scroll down to see our recent activities, upcoming events, and website updates.
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Be sure to join the Members Area to discuss water supply issues, view our document library, and receive announcement notices concerning our website and our services- it is FREE!
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Upcoming Seminars, Courses, and Drills
Click on image to view flyer.
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Maine |
New Hampshire |
Pennsylvania |
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Crews worked hard with minimum staffing to support the 500+ gpm operation using 5 tenders and one fill site.
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Hauling Water - Oregon Style!
President Mark Davis, May 09
On May 4, 2024, members and apparatus from the Lane Fire Authority and surrounding departments participated in a rural water supply tender shuttle operation as part of our 16-hr Rural Water Supply Operations Seminar that was sponsored by Region 5 Training Association and hosted by the Lane Fire Authority. The goal was to establish and sustain at least a 500 gpm flow using the five tenders and one ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Dump Site Operations #29 - Know Your Drains
President Mark Davis, May 02
A simple message really. Dump tank drains are generally designed to be stowed in a particular manner. It is best that you are familiar with how they are designed to be stowed. There are number of different methods of drain sleeve stowage attachments.....they can vary some between manufacturers....and even within the same brand over time. Be familiar with yours. Take a video of it for your members ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Dump tank drains are only as good as how they were last stowed. Hence, know how yours are designed to be stowed.
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A very nice and functional upgrade of an older tanker's direct fill line. The new Fireman's Friend (4") valve is outfitted with a stainless steel S-pipe that allows the LDH fill connection to be located at about knee height for easy maneuvering of the hose coupling.
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What's on Your Tanker #52 - Direct Fill Line Upgrade
President Mark Davis, April 25
The ability to load a tanker fast and get it back on the road to the dump site is really important. There are a bunch of "tricks" to being good at tanker loading operations. When using LDH to load tankers, it is best to try and keep those direct fill connections low to the ground so that the person making and breaking the connection doesn't have to fight lifting the hose. In these couple photos ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Dry Hydrant Design #64 - Bridge-Mount Installation - Lake Silkworth, PA
President Mark Davis, April 19
This morning we completed another successful bridge-mount dry fire hydrant installation; this time in the Lake Silkworth area of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania on Marchakitus Road at Pikes Creek. The installation used our angle-mount design and an ETT suction head and stream strainer. The installation was funded by the Lake Silkworth VFD with pipe being supplied by Lehman Township. A flow test of ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Engine 2 (1250 gpm) was able to produce an 1100 gpm+ flow from the new DFH installation.
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The soft-sided dump chute seemed to work pretty well off-loading the 3200-gallons carried on this tanker.
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What's on Your Tanker #51 - Soft-Side Dump Chutes
President Mark Davis, April 11
During our 2012 seminar in Amenia, New York we came across an interesting dump chute design on an older, 3200-gallon tanker out of the Stanford (NY) Fire District. The side dump chutes were soft-sided; made of "dump tank-like" material. We really have not seen another set-up like this; it worked pretty well and the rig did a great job of hauling water during the 2-hour drill. The design did not ... (Full Story & Photos)
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What's on Your Engine #16 - Suction Elbow
President Mark Davis, April 04
The use of suction elbows on side suction inlets is gaining popularity in those areas of the country where folks depend on drafting to support their firefighting operations. Several manufacturers make a suction elbow and we certainly recommend suction elbow use...especially when using portable dump tanks positioned in front of...or to the rear of the pumper. For the two brands that we tested back ... (Full Story & Photos)
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The suction elbow can make big a difference in performance when setting up portable dump tanks either to the front or rear of a pumper.
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The set-up was fast....but the slide locks on the float were forgotten during deployment and now the strainer is sucking air on the one corner. Gotta bring that back to shore and fix it.
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Drafting Tip #22 - Floating Strainer Pins/Slides
President Mark Davis, March 28
Another simple item that can make or break a quick drafting set-up. Many of the floating suction strainer manufacturers use some type of pin or slide bar lock to secure the strainer in the float during storage. On some brands, it you forget to remove the pin or move the slide bar then there is a good chance that the strainer and float will come out of the water once the suction hose is full of water ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Dry Hydrant Design #63 - Bridge-Mount Installation - McClean, NY
President Mark Davis, March 21
This week we completed the installation of one of our bridge-mount dry fire hydrants on a bridge over Fall Creek in McClean, New York. The project was funded by the McLean Fire District and used our angle-mount bracket system. The lift at the bridge was pretty high (16-feet) but the water supply was abundant and usable. A 6-inch ETT brand female dry hydrant head and a 6-inch ETT stream strainer ... (Full Story & Photos)
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McClean Engine 1201 (1500 gpm) drafts for the first time using the new bridge-mount DFH.
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Your questions and feedback are important to us! If you have a question about water supply or pumps or FD stuff in general, join our Members area (for free) to post your inquiry. We will provide our thoughts and perhaps other folks in the field will provide theirs also.
Also - be sure to sign the guest book if this is your first time here - guestbook.
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