Our contractor has completed the installation and plumbing our latest water storage tank at the corner of DePape and Porpoise. The tank has been filled over the last few days and is now fully functional.
Normally we would fill the tank by shuttling 15 loads of water from the fire hall to the tank with our tanker. Fortunately, with all of the recent rain, the creek beside the tank has been running quite strongly and we were able to fill the tank with a portable pump.
When the ground dries out a bit the contractor will return to fix up the landscaping. Look for another fantastic mural by a local artist shortly after that.
Perriwinkle Road is next in line for plumbing and filling.
At our chimney fire call today, it was pretty obvious that the weather was not going to cooperate with us. The roads were slick and the snow was still falling. When we got back to the Fire Hall we decided to chain up the trucks. This is not a decision that we take lightly. It involves an extra hour of being on a cold, wet truck bay floor after the equipment has been cleaned and put back in service.
The chains are also hard on the floors, hard on the roads, and hard on the trucks themselves. Then, after the roads improve, someone has to return to the firehall and take them all apart again. All that work is worth it when we have to drive out on a cold, snowy slippery night.
In fact, it was only 30 minutes after we finished chaining up the trucks that we got our second call of the day. At that point all of the drivers felt pretty good about the time spent on the cold, wet truck bay floor.
When the situation calls for it, our pumper truck can empty its entire load through hoselines in under 5 minutes. We need to be able to get water on scene as quickly as possible. To this end, we have contracted Jed Young to install 4 new tanks at pre-determined locations around the island.
Tanks will be installed in the following locations:
Sandpiper at Porpoise and Depape
Galleon at Brigantine and Sollans
Whaling Station at Perriwinckle
Euston Road at the top
Jed has sandblasted and painted the tanks with a rust resistant paint. The tanks are now all in their proper locations. They need to be backfilled to hold them in place, plumbed with fire department hookups, and then filled with water. We are still on schedule for having all of the new tanks usable by the end of the year. Look forward to additional landscaping during the upcoming spring season.
Graham Herbert's eye-popping mural on the Sandpiper Tank
We are thrilled to have the Hornby Island Arts Council take a keen interest in integrating the storage tanks into the island landscape. They have coordinated island artists to paint murals on each of the tanks as funding comes available.
Graham Herbert has completed the latest project with his beautiful mural on the Sandpiper tank on Central road. The Whaling Station tanks on St Johns Pt Road is the next one to be done. Glen Rubina has been commisioned for that job. Elaine Savoie is also lined up for a mural on the Savoie Road tank.
We’ve replaced one of our ancient 18HP Hale portable pumps with a shiny new 27HP Kohler. Although it has twice the pumping capacity, it only weighs a bit more than the old one, and it so much easier to get running.
Here on Hornby we have no hydrants and water supply is a big challenge for us. What we do have around here is plenty of ocean water and a few ponds and lakes. Having a high volume portable pump improves our water supply situation immensely. We’ve been spending a fair amount of time lately, on our Thursday night practices, working with the new pump to ensure that everyone gets a a chance to become more acquainted with the new beast.
