Thursday evening June 11 brought companies from Carroll and Montgomery counties together to train on rural water supply operations. Units from Mount Airy, New Windsor, Sykesville-Freedom, and Laytonsville got together to set up and run a small scale rural water supply drill to refresh the experienced members, and to train the newer members in attendance. A fill site was set up at a dry hydrant a short distance from the carnival grounds as the water source. A simulated fire scene was established at the Activities Building at the carnival grounds. A supply line was laid in to the rear of the building from the driveway and the drop tank was set at the top of the driveway. E12 from Mount Airy was the fill site engine. They established a draft from the dry hydrant in the pond and set up a fill site to fill incoming tankers with water. E124 from Sykesville-Freedom laid the supply line and became the attack engine utilizing their deck gun as the water applicator. E101 from New Windsor became the drafting engine at the drop tank and pumped the line to E124. Tanker 1 from Mount Airy and Engine Tanker 717 from Laytonsville were the water shuttle units to bring water from the fill site to the drop tank. The exercise ran for an hour and a flow of approximately 300 gallons per minute was maintained with only one 45 second break.

These local drills are very rewarding in as much as a great working relationship is maintained with companies that don't often work together on an actual fire scene. It also provides an opportunity to train our newer members as well as refresh our tenured members on proper rural water supply operations. A large portion of the MAVFC first due area is without hydrants so it is imperative that we are trained on rural water supply procedures. The companies that participated with us are also faced with this same challenge.