BY DAN SHERIDAN AND ERNEST G. RICHTER III
We arrived at our first fire on Tuesday morning, September 6. It immediately became apparent that New Orleans had a serious water supply problem. A fire that started in a house ultimately had spread to the surrounding exposures. This, we learned, was a common problem under the circumstances. Most, if not all, of the city’s hydrant system was out of service. At this fire, the New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD) was relying on milk tankers to shuttle water to the fire scene. Later that morning, we responded to another fire; the same scenario was played out. The first two engines arrived at a house fire and were able to save the exposures with booster water but inevitably lost the house.
After the first day of fire operations, it was obvious that we had to come up with some kind of a plan to improve our water supply efforts. The following day, I met with Captain Joe Margin from the NOFD, who had been appointed the water resource officer as a result of a fire in a department store on Canal Street. He informed me that he had put into service a 7,000-gallon water truck that was keeping Bell South’s cooling system functioning. He then arranged with Bell South to provide this tanker to the NOFD whenever it was needed. At this time, we had only a few, if any, fire service-type tankers. More tankers from other fire departments were to arrive during the week. We now felt we would be in better shape for future fires until other equipment arrived.
Thursday morning, we got a run (or, as NOFD calls it, a roll) for a reported fire at the previous location. The adjoining house was now fully involved. My engine arrived third due. I knew the street and had the chauffeur come down the road where the fire was spreading to an exposure. With everything now in place and the water tanker on-scene, we were all a little more confident. Our engine was a mixed crew from the Bronx, made up of members from Engines 96 and 43 and Ladders 29 and 59. We put our collars up and our flaps down and made our way down the alley of the exposed building. We were using up water fast, but I reassured the crew that we had enough water. However, some problems followed, and we had to make a safe retreat back to the street. Luckily, we were able to keep an exposure from becoming involved.
NEW PLANS
FDNY Deputy Chief William Seelig witnessed the operation. After the job and returning to base camp at Algiers, we collectively critiqued the operation. Some of the problems were caused by the fact that the water tankers or milk trucks were driven by civilians who had never been at a fire scene before. Time was a huge factor. Once we depleted our water supply, it could take a significant amount of time to get another tanker on-scene. At any one time, there could be separate alarms with other units operating that also needed water.
In addition to these problems, it also took time for the engines and tankers to refill because they had to drive to the wharf where a fireboat was drafting. We came up with a plan to drive out to where the water tankers were being staged and refine our drafting operations. Seelig agreed with the plan. After arriving where the milk/water tankers were staged, we set up a drill on how to draft out of the tankers. There were no hose connections on the tankers, unlike regular fire service tankers, so we decided to draft from the fill openings on top of the tanks. With the help of Wayne Melton of Ladder 29 and the rest of our crew, we pulled a draft in a matter of seconds. With head pressure already present, it was pretty easy. We just needed two sections of hard-suction hose to reach from the pump panel to the top of the tanker.
NOFD Engine Company 8, staffed by an FDNY crew and one NOFD firefighter, was the designated water supply unit. The new strategy was to have Engine 8 respond to all working fires with a tanker to ensure the other engines had a water supply.
The same night, we turned out for a fire in another private dwelling. We arrived shortly after the first-due assignment; the water tanker arrived soon after. The original fire building was a total loss, but we, once again, were able to hold the exposures.
The following day, we were informed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had contracted for 40 water tankers from the U.S. Forest Service; these tankers arrived at the same time as the fire service tankers. FDNY Deputy Chief Robert Maynes informed me that we had to work all the tankers into the system. It was determined that we would need only about half of the tankers, which would be put into task forces of six tankers. We ran three task forces-two for day calls and one for night calls.
During the day, the task forces were staged at the Decatur Street firehouse and the Gerard Street firehouse. At night, a task force would respond citywide directly from the base camp. Engine 8 was staffed 24 hours by two alternating shifts. Lieutenant Frank Loeb of Engine 324 and Lieutenant Bill Butler of Ladder Company 56 were now in charge of the unit. We rode with Captain Al Facine, who took over for Margin. This freed us to do other tasks, including helping to restore the public hydrant system. The system at this time was still fragile and was losing some 90 million gallons of water a day. One of our new jobs was to monitor and gauge how well the hydrant system was being restored.
The north end of the city was starting to get some pressure back, but it would be a long time before the 9th Ward would have any working system. Once we started to work with the U.S. Forest Service, we revised our initial attack plan. These crews were a tremendous help. The new plan was to have a U.S. Forest Service tanker with a 2,000-gallon tank and 1,000-gpm pump supply as the first-due engine, which would drop a supply line with a gated wye at the end. The tanker would hook up to the wye and feed the first-due engine. Next, Engine 8 would come in, get fed from another engine, which had front suction and was drafting out of a portable pond. Engine 8 would then run another supply line to the wye.
DAN SHERIDAN, a 19-year member of the Fire Department of New York, is a captain assigned to the 6th Division in the Bronx.
ERNEST G. RICHTER III is a Fire Department of New York firefighter assigned to Engine 96 in the Bronx.
