| ▲ | michaelt 3 days ago | |
In the UK a large-scale fire will often be attended by far more fire engines than the local water network can supply. At the major Grenfell Tower fire, the water network could only supply ~4,320 litres per minute (1141 us gallons per minute) [1] despite firefighters asking the water suppliers to maximise the water supply. And that fire was attended by seventy fire engines and two hundred and fifty firefighters, as they needed pretty much all the breathing apparatus in the city. So they had substantially more pump capacity than they had water available. [1] https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/lfb-did-not-follow-even... | ||
| ▲ | mindcrime 3 days ago | parent [-] | |
Oh it happens in the US as well. I know of at least one relatively large metro area fire department here in NC that has a few sections of the city with known water supply issues - to the point that structure fires in those areas get dispatched with automatic mutual aid for tankers from surrounding rural departments. | ||