Help with Brush Fire Water Rig

[trook]

I am looking for a way to have some water available for some medium sized brush fires on my property. We are constantly burning limbs, dead trees, etc and I want a way to have some water available to suppress the fires if they tend to get out of control.

The average size brush pile is approximately 15-20ft in diameter and approximately 6-8 feet high. I do have a 100 gallon 3 point hitch sprayer with a good wand and decent pressure. I know this is not much, but it is certainly better than nothing.

I also have at my disposal a 250 gallon tote tank and a portable gas water pump that is supposed to pump up to 9000 gallons/hr. We have a 5ac lake I can pull water from to fill my tote tank, but the piles of brush are too far from the lake to draw straight from the lake to the brush piles with hose.

My thought are, after disking around the brush pile:

1) use the 100 gallon tank with the tractor if needed. This would be very mobile but will not have lots of volume. Would this be sufficient?

2) set the tote tank close to the brush pile (with pallet forks) and hook up the water pump (but not turn it on) and have it on standby in case the fire starts to get too big. Then, if needed, I can start the water pump and pull from the 250 gallon tote and put out a large volume of water in a short period of time. I only have a 25ft "blue" 2" hose. I don't have any type of fire nozzle, etc and I imagine I would go through the 250 gallons pretty fast. I have made an adapter that will allow me to hook up a standard garden hose to the 2" blue hose, but I am afraid of what such a large volume of water may do to any type of standard sprayer nozzle, not to mention if it will harm my pump because of reduced flow of water.

Please give me your opinions on what I should consider.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

Sounds good to me...........

First cut some form of fire break around your brush pile. With a disc or shank digger of some kind. Go two rounds on the down wind side of the pile.
Use your spray rig to damp down around the pile. Refill spray rig. Have the reserve water tank on the up wind side of brush pile.

Go for it.
Good luck

 

[bcp]

Or you could put the brush in the lake.

Building A Better Brush Pile | The Ultimate Bass Fishing Resource Guide® LLC

Bruce

 

[RFB]

Get yourself the following items:

1. 100' of 1 inch wildland firefighting hose, Niedner Spec. 187 - Type II Treated FORESTRY FIRE HOSE, 1 inch x 100 Ft. Yellow - 24884 available from Fire Etc

2. a nozzle, Lexan Red Plastic Nozzle (1 Inch NST) from Fire Etc

3. Fittings to attach to your 250 tank/pump

4. A gallon of Joy dish detergent.

Put 1/4 of the bottle into the 100, and the rest into the 250. The detergent functions as a surfactant. It is not as good as Class A Foam, but it will definitely enhance the firefighting ability of your water

 

[adjusterr]

Living on the side of a mountain surrounded by trees, brush and uncut fields, with neighbors who open burn, I'm considering building a towable pump/tank system. I have the trailer and several 360 gallon tanks. I'll follow suggestions from RFB re: hose, nozzle and dish detergent. My concern is what type of pump should I get. I've been looking at Tractor Supply but there are numerous choices. Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[JRP]

Living on the side of a mountain surrounded by trees, brush and uncut fields, with neighbors who open burn, I'm considering building a towable pump/tank system. I have the trailer and several 360 gallon tanks. I'll follow suggestions from RFB re: hose, nozzle and dish detergent. My concern is what type of pump should I get. I've been looking at Tractor Supply but there are numerous choices. Any suggestions would be appreciated

Honda WH20 pump. A used one from eBay has served me well for years. It is higher pressure and lighter, useful for fire work. Low flow won't hurt a centrifugal pump, as long as it is not no flow until the water boils from heat build up.

Look for 1 1/2" fire hose and fittings - eBay. Cheap and suitable for high pressure. I got 500 feet from work free cause it had pin holes.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Thanks for the specific recommendations RFB. I was just lurking this on thread to gain information.

 

[trook]

I have a tractor supply trash pump. I know this may not be the best choice, but would it be sufficient as long as I don't let it run too long without without water moving over the pump?

 

[RFB]

Trash pumps, at least in the genre I have used (independent engine powered e.g B&S/Honda etc), are not self-priming, (as opposed to positive-displacement pumps). They are centrifugal pumps that use a volute that utilizes centrifugal force "throwing" water to the external diameter over the vanes, that is then collected in the housing for the volute and moved to discharge. These pumps usually need water poured into the priming orifice, and then constant supply to the eye (intake) of the volute to maintain pressure. When you lose prime you must start over.

 

[RFB]

"Look for 1 1/2" fire hose..."

I tend to disagree re. the hose diameter for a short run (100').

Yes, there is a significant reduction in friction loss from 1 inch to 1.5 inch, but for 100 feet, the effect is not so important. One of the issues is the amount and constancy of your water supply. If you have an unlimited supply, certainly 1.5 is a good choice, and particularly when you are putting in a mile of hose on one flank of a fire. The friction loss does add up.

For 250 gallons, and (for the sake of the argument, relatively untrained and inexperienced firefighting skills), 1 inch hose will give you plenty of ability without quickly exhausting your supply, and 100 feet should enable good maneuverability without making the system more than it needs to be.