Terry Kruger
Northern News Services
Friday, July 13, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Fire Chief Reid Douglas says his department can fight any fire in areas without hydrants with the equipment it has now.

Douglas said the present system of pairing the department's two front-line Quint fire pumpers with 2,500-gallon tankers is standard procedure for departments that serve areas that lack fire hydrants.

By Yellowknifer's estimate, there are more than 750 properties in Old Town/Latham Island, Kam Lake road, Old Airport Road and Con/Rycon trailer parks without hydrants.

Fire department capabilities in non-hydrant areas will be discussed at a town hall meeting July 17, 7 p.m. at City Hall.

There has been plenty of discussion in the weeks since a blaze destroyed a Morrison Drive duplex on June 2.

During the fire, the department ran out of water when a high-powered water tower atop the pumper blasted 1,000 gallons a minute onto the inferno, draining the firefighters' 5,300 gallons of water in just a few minutes.

In this fire, the department sent both of its tankers to Latham Island after the initial alarm.

"They could see the smoke from the (fire) hall," said Douglas, who was out of town on the weekend the fire occurred.

Douglas said city firefighters ordinarily use compressed air foam, not straight water to douse fires.

It reduces water need by three-quarters, meaning one tanker can supply enough water for 50 minutes of spraying at 200 gallons a minute.

On June 2, however, the department's lone foam pumper, Engine 8 bought in 2004, was only used as backup because of a leaking seal.

It remains in a backup role while the department waits for a city mechanic to do the necessary repair.

It's been leaking for about six weeks but Douglas said the pumper could be used if it's needed.

"We didn't want to risk causing any more damage," said Douglas. "It's on the top of our maintenance list. It's not something we're panicking about.

With foam, the fire department can meet the national Fire Underwriters Survey standard of spraying about 200 gallons a minute for two hours using a tanker shuttle system. The underwriter's standard is used to set insurance rates.

Right now, a Latham Island home worth $300,000 pays about $500 more a year for fire insurance.

Yellowknifer calculations indicate that using straight water to fight a fire would drain a pumper and two tankers in about 27 minutes by spraying 200 gallons a minute out of one 2.5-inch hose. Using more hoses would drain water even faster.

The Morrison fire is believed to have been started by a cigarette put into a planter on the deck. Flames crawled up the wood siding and into the roof trusses.

"The house was gone. There was nothing we could do," said Douglas, saying using the water cannon that quickly drained the tankers was "the right decision."

"I will never second-guess an incident commander," he said.

Deputy fire chief Chucker Dewar said the action knocked down the flames, likely preventing the fire from spreading to nearby homes.

Once the tankers used in the Morrison fire ran out of water, the tankers had to go back to the nearest hydrant to refill, at Franklin Ave. near the turnoff to the Racquet Club.

It takes 20-30 minutes to go from Morrison to that hydrant, refill the tanker and return, said Douglas.

On big fires, the department would use both tankers to shuttle water back and forth.

It can also call in the city's 6,000 gallon tanker, although its use is limited because baffles inside the tank slow the speed with which water drains from the tank.

On Morrison, the tanker resupply was hampered by a large number of vehicles driven by people who flocked to Latham to see the blaze.

In future, Douglas said municipal enforcement will likely block access at School Draw Avenue.

Some people continue to ask why water can't be pumped out of the lake, but Douglas said that would only be considered as a "last resort."

"I'm very comfortable with the water supply," said Douglas, who said the lake around Latham is shallow and any attempt to pump water would probably suck in debris and damage the pumps.

Dewar said not only would it take time to prime the water line, the maximum lift of a pump is 20 feet.

Sending water up onto the top of Latham would probably "overwhelm the pump."

Stretching hundreds of meters of hoses is also not an answer, said the chief, who noted water pressure falls with each length of hose used.

"Tanker operations are the most efficient," said Douglas.

The same day as the Morrison fire, the fire department used less than 300 gallons of water to douse an electrical fire in a home on Harriet's Lane, also on Latham Island.

In that incident, the fire crew dumped about 1,000 gallons out of the portable reservoir.

In the event if two fires in non-hydrant areas, Douglas said one tanker would be dispatched to each fire, supplemented by the city's 6,000 gallon tanker and possibly private contractors.

That almost happened on June 2. At the time, both pumpers and tankers were in use.

The fire department received a call of an odour at the Yellowknife Ski Club.

A deputy chief was sent to investigate, discovering nothing wrong during a nine-minute visit.