On Sunday, October 11, 2009 the Ridgefield Volunteer Fire Department (RVFD) held a tanker shuttle drill with the following Departments; Mill Plain and Miry Brook (Danbury, CT) West Redding, Stony Hill, Georgetown (CT) Croton Falls, South Salem, Vista (NY) along with Ridgefield Tankers 10 and 12,, Engine 3 and Truck 8.
The purpose of the drill was to set up a working water relay system in the event that a substantial mutual aid response was required for a working fire. At the discharge site just above the re-cycling center, three portable 3000 gallon ponds were set up with hard suction hoses to draft from them.
Once the set-up was complete, three tankers dropped nearly 9000 gallons of water which was pumped by Georgetown’s engine to Truck 8 which then began discharging water from one of its master streams and then finally two. The rate of discharge was nearly 1600 gallons per minute. The fill site was the pond at Parks and Rec. on Route 35. Ridgefield E-3 was drafting from the pond and feeding the relay tankers. A second fill site was established as the first site was not able to fill the tankers fast enough to keep the ponds full.
