The trucks and fire crews, representing fire departments from several Vancouver Island communities and one from the Okanagan Valley, were here to take part in the Errington Volunteer Fire Department’s third Super Shuttle training.
The training, designed to prepare firefighters to work in areas without fire hydrants, uses a combination of portable pumps, pumper and tanker trucks and above-ground holding ponds -- as well as kilometres of hose -- to move water from area streams and ponds to where it is needed in case of a fire.
"We're the only small (fire) department to have the super shuttle qualification," said Errington firefighter George Klemm, who organized the scenario-based training that imagined a forest fire bearing down on rural residences between Errington and Englishman River Falls. "This is important to departments that work in areas without hydrant service."