Tankers to Fill Swimming Pools?

[BedfordFire 7]

I recently came across a fire company in Pennsylvania that has a tractor-trailer set up for a tanker (6,500 gallons), and during the summer months, they provide a "pool filling" service with the rig for a profit. Maybe its just me, but isint that wierd for a fire department to be doing? What are your thoughts on this?

Heres the link:

http://www.kimbertonfire.org/pool.htm

[DES630 10]

I think that is a good idea plus good PR.

[nycemt728 49]

I agree, as long as they're obviously OOS (which they indicate that the tanker used is a spare), its a good, harmless way to get their name out there, raise money, interact, and perform a community service. They even post pool saftey rules right below the advertisement. The money raised appears to go directly to buying their rigs, so its a win win for all I would think. I don't think this is any different than renting space in quarters or holding a bake sale or any other fundraiser/community outreach program.

Edited January 13, 2007 by nycemt728

[irishfire2491 24]

is it for hire or we will fill you pool for a donation!!!!

and a good way to know you discarage Valve is working.

And A Instent Pool in seconds lol.

[Guest]

i suppose for sakes of PR, it might be a good idea...but its interesting this topic came up. i recall about a year ago, a freind of mine's son (who's was a voly somewhere upstate) told me how he got into a conflict with some of the members in house, including officers, where he was asked to come in during a weekend to drill (i believe he said they were practicing vehicle extrication) and help some of the younger members who have never even picked up a tool. when he arrived at the house, he was excited bout getting down to business and drill, teach and learn, only to find that the building was emtpy, even the rigs were gone. he waited, made phone calls and finally later on in the day, they started to come back and he found out that a civilian called the station and asked if the members could come by to fill his pool, and in return he would have a BBQ for them. needless to say, he was upset that the members chose to rather go eat and fill a pool (chief's argument was it was good PR, while other members supposedly admitted they just wanted free BBQ) than stay behind and pratice something that most of the members rarely get to do as it is...not forgetting the fact that this drill was planned a week earlier and no one had the courtesy to notify the other members who were waiting in the station of the change in plans.

again, i suppose its good PR, but there's a right and wrong time for it...just my thoughts

enjoy the weekend!

[JetPhoto 626]

Heres the link:

http://www.kimbertonfire.org/pool.htm

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I personally like the Beef & Beer Comedy Night - February 3, 2007.

It appears as they are a fire protection company as they get funding from 5 municipalities. This may explain how they are able to do the swimming pool thing. It looks like they have some nice apparatus too.

[Guest]

In Cuyler we fill pools in the summer for a $50 donation per load. It is good P.R. We make a little money to help out with food we order on training and meeting nights. All of are water does come from creeks so not much expence on our side.

[IzzyEng4 427]

Before the youngest company was incorporated into our town (org, in 1956 and inc. in 1971) While they had a tanker before the extension of water lines in their area and they had to pay for the up keep of their truck, they hauled water for swimming pools, at least that is the story I had been told. A lot of independent fire companies and even other companies that are funded by a district but own their own tankers outright have done this for many years. A friend's former company in PA has done it for years and still do this.

There is nothing wrong with it if it is trying to help a company with its finances but everyone that I know who's department's provide this service do not use city or town vehicles because that is a conflict. If a department owns that particular truck and pay for it's upkeep then there is no conflict. It's good PR and also they have done it so much they know how to cover when performing this.

[Doc 11]

This is sort of off topic, but it is about another unique PR or money making program. A small department near where I used to volunteer way upstate did this thing... for $50.00 you could have the FD show up with their Thermal Imaging camera and they'd find where you were losing your heat from. They'd do this whole home energy audit. A buddy of mine had them do it and he's still saving money from the caulk and weatherstrip that camera told him he needed.

[Union241 3]

This is a fundraiser that my department in South Central PA also uses. During the summer months we take requests for water, and when drivers are available for our tanker we'll go out and fill people's pools for $75 a load (our tanker hauls 2,500 gallons). Due to the fact that we run a somewhat low number of tanker calls a year (last year it was a little over a tenth of our 1,003 calls were for the tanker) we keep the tanker in service. As a policy we do not haul water outside of our second due area so if need be we can still have the tanker close enough to run calls with it if need be. It doesn't bring us in a huge amount of money, but every bit helps and as an added incentive, at the end of the summer one of our chiefs throws a thank you party to everybody who helped with the pool filling. Yes, filling pools is a fundraiser, but it is also a great way to get some good PR for not just for my company, but for the area fire service as a whole.

[JetPhoto 626]

Departments have to be very careful, unless your drafting water from pond, ect... they are probably using a municipal or private fire hydrant. This may be viewed as a theft of water as it is not being used for fire protection purposes. So departments have to make sure they are not "stealing" water to profit from the pool filling and if the department is a fire district where tax money is used to purchase / upkeep the apparatus they should also use caution accepting donations to the company side. This is where careful documentation about "drills" and "donations" must be made. After all, you can't always practice water shuttles...

I'm sure a lawyer would have a field day with this regardless.

[CHIEFPHIL 90]

We use to do this a long time ago for a donation, until we were advised that this was a theft of service. Since we used the municipal water sytem with a town owned vehicle this was a no-no and stopped.

One reason people would ask us to fill the pool was so that they would not pay for the water/sewer usage. In our town the municipality runs the water sytem. The second was so that they did not use extra electricity to run thier well pumps.

A neighbor dept got smart to this and came up with a plan, using thier old tanker [not in service] registered to the fire company and had a well drilled for them to get the water on thier owned land, they then put in a storage tank aand during the summer months fill pools with thier own water. Not a bad way of doing it.

[e290l103 3]

there are a LOT of fire companies in PA that do this for a small donation to the company.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

My department down south did this for a few years and then stopped. Mostly becasue as someone stated the municipal water system grew and they wanted to put a meter on a hydrant if we did to charge the persons the water fee. It wasn't a bad way to make a few extra bucks from what I heard and often they would use a person learning or just finishing pump ops training to fill the tanker.

Only time we did help out once was for the municipality. They were having a pool at one of the parks rehabbed and it ran late. They had 2 days to fill it for the grand opening on memorial day. My department only ran a small older tanker that carried 3100 gallons. Each load was like a drop in a bucket. We ended up using a close hydrant and laid 4" from it and left it open. They barely got it open, and not many people swam that water was freezing. lol. In the end we were the cats meow for the county.

[AndyC3J 190]

On a similar note, there was a guy in this area who was suspended from his company for using the tanker to fill his own pool, under the guise of a training exercise for the two junior FF's who were with him. The catch? Took the truck out of district, and used a city hydrant to fill it, both without seeking the necessary permission......which may or may not have been granted in the first place.