On June 3, 2004, a 5-alarm fire struck downtown Libertytown, Maryland and involved Saint Peters Church and several surrounding structures. With the town lacking a municipal water system - a tanker shuttle and relay pumping operation were needed to deliver water to the fire scene.

Oddly enough, run-off from the fire traveled to a small creek that ran through town and one of the tanker fill sites actually used that water to refill tankers.

The fill site was managed by New Windsor VFD Engine 101. The crew used the pumper's roof ladder and a salvage cover to dam up the flow so that a draft could be obtained. While the site did not provide the 1,000 gpm recommended flow for a tanker fill operation - it certainly made a difference in the overall water supply operation because it was the closest fill site (1/2-mile round trip maybe) to the fire scene.

While we are certain that others have done this exact same thing in order to draft - these are some of the only photos that we have of this type of damming operation - so we thought we would share them.