WATCH LAKE NORTH GREEN LAKE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT
www.wlnglfiredept.org
The eastern border of the WL-N.GL VFD is seven km from the closest water supply at Hall #1. The access to this area is via Little Green Lake Road, all gravel from Watch Lake Lodge to Tristan Road. This road has many blind curves, is rough at the best of times and is poorly maintained during the winter months. Although the fire department trucks carry a total of almost 6,000 gallons of water, in the event of a major fire in that area, this amount of water could be exhausted in a short period of time requiring the tenders make the fourteen km round trip to the closest water source at Hall #1 or the twenty-three km round trip to the Access 14 dry-hydrant.
For some time now, the department has planned to install a dry-hydrant in the pond at the Tristan Road Gravel Pit. This pond is a year-round source of water, but it too could be used-up quickly and the recovery rate is very slow. To compensate for this and to guarantee there is a reserve of water at that location, plans are under way to bury a 9,000-gallon tank next to the pond that will be constantly filled by the dry-hydrant.
This tank was purchased from Savona Equipment and trucked by the Rona flat-deck to the Rona yard at Interlakes where the access port was installed. A couple of weeks ago the flat-deck delivered it to the site where it is now being coated with preservative tape prior to being buried in conjunction with the installation of the dry-hydrant.
During the first week of August an excavator will be brought in to bury the tank close to the pond and excess gravel from the excavation will be used to improve the parking area at Access 14. The original intention at Access 14 was to encourage Highways and Parks to participate with the Fire Department in enhancing the boat launch and lake access as a replacement for the closed off recreational area at the “y”. To date Parks has shown no interest.
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