MONTOURSVILLE, Pa. — Have a pool or pond? The Montoursville Fire Department is looking for help finding water in rural areas to fight fires.
"Here in town, we've got hydrant systems. So water's easily accessible for us. However, you head just a couple miles outside of town, and water's a challenge, and in rural firefighting, there's really two things that drive the success—it's quick response time to be able to get, cause we may have 10-15 minutes travels to the upper ends of our area but then finding a water source once we get there," said Jeff Kukuchka Montoursville Fire Department President.
When a resident notifies the Montoursville Fire Department they can let them use their pool, the fire department puts the address into their their mapping software.
"We have that available on all of our trucks, so we're able to see on there where we have available water, so we determine that on the way to the call, 'hey where's our closest water? Where's our fastest to be able to get to?'," said Kukuchka.
Pools need to be at least over 10,000 gallons or more. So far the fire department has over 20 pools in their system in Fairfield and Upper Fairfield Townships.
"Our goal is still to go find that bigger source so there's the pond, or the creek stream where can get continuous water flow; however, a quick hit could be just that 10,15—20,000 gallons sitting in someone's backyard."
Kukuchka said they run hoses into residents' backyards when they need to use their pool during a fire.
"We have small portable pumps; we have smaller trucks that we can get in and get that water pumped out; we also ensure that we don't completely drain the pools when we utilize them cause we know that could cause damage to a pool if we completely empty it and then if we use that water, we're more than happy to come and refill it after the fire's out and we can get the water back to them."
Volunteer firefighters at the fire department hope that more first responders across the county utilize residents' pools or ponds. To have your pool in the mapping system, contact the Montoursville Fire Department.