By Bill Adams

Over the years, I've had the opportunity to interact with many older members of rural fire companies. If they ever came to morning coffee with the Raisin Squad, they'd fit right in. I call them "farmers"—a nonderogatory term I use and fortunately one most don't take offense to. After all, who wants to argue with a 250-pound 70-year-old who can leap out of a truck cab like a leopard, wears bib coveralls, has hands as big as hams, and has no problem singlehandedly carrying a 100-foot length LDH. I probably should just call him "sir" and hope I don't get thumped. Farmers' stories are mostly down-to-earth. They tell it like it is without caring about decorum and standards.

At one trade show, I jaw-boned with one who was proud as a peacock of his company's new tanker that was being displayed. He was on the purchasing committee. It was a bare-bones two-door commercial job with a single rear axle, 1,800-gallon tank and a 750-gpm PTO pump. I asked him why only an 1,800-gallon tank. "That's the biggest tank the guys are comfortable driving." You know, you can get more water on a single axle if that's a concern. "I didn’t say a twin screw is an issue. I said they don't want to drive one with more than 1,800 gallons on board." Why? "These people drive big farm equipment; some drive rigs for the co-op hauling milk and such. They know our roads and know how rigs handle. They drive them and that's what they want. Why buy a rig they won't drive?" Thus ended lesson one.

When asked how many rigs his department has, he replied a 15-year-old tanker like the one just purchased but with a 500-gpm pump, a 25-year-old 2,500-gallon tanker with a small portable pump, a 35-year-old pumper with a 500-gallon tank that's never used and a pickup truck for grass fires. How come you don't buy pumper-tankers. "Don't need them." Why not? "We don't have hydrants. We need water. We don't have retention ponds or creeks you can reach with a pumper. Most water is over a thousand feet off the nearest hardtop. Besides, during the wet seasons the fields won't support a pumper or even a mini pumper carrying a couple thousand feet of supply hose."

What about your ISO rating? "We don't have one now." Well, what about setting up mutual aid with tankers? If you can maintain a certain flow for a given amount of time, the ISO will up your rating. "Where the hell are we going to get tankers. Our closest mutual aid company is 20 miles away. The rest are further than that. Besides, at 10 in the morning, it’s hit or miss for all of us. You know as well as I do, after the first 10 or 15 minutes if it ain't out, it ain't going out." What about automatic mutual assistance? I think he was kidding when he said, "We're good but I doubt we can keep a fire burning long enough for them to get here." 

What about using a blitz attack with a deck gun? "Well, we thought about that, but we can’t guarantee getting a rig close enough to use one on a side that might need it. We bought one of them small portable jobs (ground monitors) that'll flow 500 gpm. That way we can use it on all sides of a building. And, we bought the bigger pump on this tanker so we can use the portable gun and a deuce-and-a-half or a couple attack lines—as long as we have the water and the people." Why not buy both a deck gun and a portable