Tank to supply water for fires
Staff writer
Ramona’s fire department got a new 33,000 gallon tank installed Friday thanks to help from road and bridge department employees.
Prior to getting the new tank, firefighters had to fill their tanker truck from a pipe fed from the firehouse well.
“We didn’t have anything for water storage,” said Tyler Bentz. “We just had a riser next to the fire station.”
Bentz is assistant fire chief and a road and bridge department employee who gave up his day off Friday to go help with the task of setting the tank in the ground.
Road and bridge dug the hole Thursday and put the tank in the ground Friday morning.
Having the tank will make filling the department’s 1,700-gallon tanker truck much faster than the typical 30 minutes it took to fill the tanker truck.
“We’ve been put in that situation where we need water out there and other fire departments are there and we’ve had to wait as long as an hour to fill the truck,” Bentz said.
The underground tank will help not only the fire department. It will have a coin box so farmers can fill spraying equipment.
“It’s going to benefit a lot of people,” Bentz said. “It will really benefit farmers who need water for their sprayers.”
The fire department has been able to get water from the rural water district, but the water district frowns on them taking more than a few thousand gallons, he said. Doing that makes everyone else’s water pressure drop.
“We’re having the inside of it coated with epoxy so it can be used for farmers, too,” Bentz said.