Hose system helps save structures
Protection: A home in Notch Hill has constant protection from sprinklers using the Drag Hose system.
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Updated: September 10, 2009 1:56 PM
Technology from Saskatchewan helped produce water where there was none, keeping structures in Notch Hill protected from fire.
Doug Sands, from Prince Albert, Sask., first came to B.C. in 2003 to fight fire in the Kootenays with his Sand’s Drag Hose System. This year, he was in Lillooet before coming to the Notch Hill fire.
His system consists of a six-inch hose that has a water thief – or mobile hydrant – every 100 feet. Three inch-and-a-half hoses can be hooked up to each hydrant.
It’s this system that was responsible for pushing water from an irrigation system down in the valley up to the Notch Hill Wood Door and Millwork sawmill where sprinklers were connected.
“The problem we had at this fire was sourcing water. It was too far away, so we hooked onto an irrigation system. Finding water here was a real issue,” Sands told the Observer. “Without this, we would have had trouble with water at the mill.”
The system used three pumps to push the water, one 200 horse power, the other two 160. It can pump 1,500 imperial gallons a minute.
Along with supplying water for sprinkler units, the system was used to fill helicopter bladders and water trucks.
He says it’s an expensive system. “We’ve got close to a million bucks of equipment standing here,” he said last week. “It’s $100,000 a mile just for the hose without fittings, a $100,000 tractor to pull it...”
He’s used the system to fight fires in northern Saskatchewan, but this year was so wet there it wasn’t needed. The system is a joint venture between private enterprise and the Saskatchewan government, he says, “which works excellent.”
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