Bushfires NT Grass Fire Units (GFU's) have a water tank capacity of 500 litres and the availability of nearby reliable water supplies to refill tanks can make the difference between saving or losing a fire.
While some volunteer Brigades, such as BART, Darwin River, Dundee, Livingstone, Elizabeth Valley and Lambells Lagoon have tankers, there are a lot of times when no driver is available with GFU's having to use alternate water supplies.
Pipeline hydrant
There are hydrant outlets at various places on pipelines, locations being shown on Brigade Area maps.
Typical pipeline hydrant
In-ground hydrant
In ground hydrants are also shown on Brigade Area maps. They need to have a stand pipe fitted and hoses connected for water supply. In-ground hydrants are situated at intervals along major pipelines in the Darwin rural area and stand pipes are carried by tankers and GFU's with them in their area.
The normal procedure with all the above water supplies is that someone from the Brigade responsible for the area sets up stand pipes, hoses etc. at the start of the activity and leaves them in place until fire fighting and mop up is done for the day or night. They are then packed up and reinstalled the following morning if needed. Hoses and fittings should never be left out overnight as they may not be there when required the following day. It's unfortunate, but people do steal from volunteer Brigades.
Overhead tanks
These are often in parks and reserves with a down pipe and length of hard or soft hose. It helps to have a strong welding type clamp to secure the soft hose during filling. Sometimes the valve is located so that you can't operate the valve and hold the hose at the same time and any sort of pressure causes the hose to gyrate out of the tank, resulting in a fairly slow fill at reduced flow.
The water point in Berry Springs Reserve. There is an overhead tank with soft hose (right of photo) for water. Contractors were refurbishing when this photo was taken. The tank in the background is in the Territory Wildlife Park.
Private water supplies
Many land holders have water supplies suitable for filling fire units fairly fast, but most can only offer a 13mm garden hose which can take more than 1/2 hour to fill a 500 litre tank.
Being able to quickly refill with water can make the difference between saving and losing a property.
It helps to tell your local Volunteer Brigade about water filling points on your property, show them the location and make it easy to operate. You may be away from home when a fire comes through and it makes no sense to have the world's best bore and water point that the firies have to go searching for during a wildfire and when they have found it can't get water because the on/off switch is at a remote location.
Private water points that are on public roads are shown in Brigade Area maps. Those within private properties are only shown where the land holder consents.
A roadside water point on a private block on Leonino Road, Labasheeda. Perhaps the Brigade could help out with appropriate stickers for the tank?
This is on my block. The 40mm poly pipe comes direct from the bore head. A 40mm male camlock fitting connects to hoses carried in Grass Fire Units. There is an on/off switch on an adjacent post with a 25mm hose for vehicle wash down. A PAWA quick fill 2km down the road means that this is mostly only used for GFU's garaged on my block.
