Haines Fire and Risk Consulting

609.388.4467

Water Supplies

Haines Fire & Risk Consulting (HFRC) has specialized in moving high volumes of water since its inception in 2008 with a large proportion of its engineering and consulting work being related to industrial fire water systems, fire pump systems, mobile water supply planning for storage tank and process unit firefighting and the testing of fixed and mobile fire pumps.  See our home page and about us to learn more about our experience and specialties.

HFRC regularly utilizes computerized hydraulic modeling in the analysis and design of complex water supply systems but is also equally adept at in-field hose line calculations and the troubleshooting of fixed and mobile pumping systems.  HFRC is one of the few fire protection engineering and consulting firms that understands how to apply fixed and mobile water supplies.

Industrial Water Supplies – Over half of HFRC’s engineering and technician man hours are involved with the testing, analysis, and design of large industrial fire water systems designed to deliver firefighting flow rates ranging from 3,000 to 21,000 GPM.  In addition to working on these systems HFRC assists clients to:

  • Identify their fire water demands by applying API, CCPS, NFPA and insurance industry guidelines.  In addition, HFRC regularly uses computerized fire consequence models to fine tune these estimates.
  • Develop equipment specifications for mobile pump and hose systems to supplement or back up the primary fixed water supply.  In some cases, these systems are used in lieu of a fixed water supply.
  • Develop fire pre-plans and water supply plans to assist emergency responders to achieve the required flow rates using fixed, semi-fixed and/or mobile water supplies.
  • Develop site specific fire preplans and community water supply plans to assist emergency responders to locate viable water sources and utilize them to achieve needed fire flows in a timely and effective manner.
  • Manage and provide technical oversight of fire water system improvement projects and mobile water supply acquisitions.

Municipal & Rural Water Supplies – The fire service, insurance, and engineering backgrounds of HFRC’s staff allows us to effectively interface with firefighters, municipal officials, water authority engineers and designers.  As such, HFRC can help the fire department to develop a water supply plan and justify it to municipal, water authority and regulatory officials.  Additionally, HFRC can:

  • Identify a community’s needed fire flows using NFPA, ICC and ISO guidelines.
  • Develop and plan fixed water supply improvements and mobile water supply options to supplement or augment the community’s primary water supply.  HFRC can assist the community to improve its ISO water supply credits and access water supplies previously deemed usable for practical or insurance industry credit purposes.  HFRC can help the fire department to accomplish this through its lines of water supply access equipment, which includes:
    • Hytrans HydroSubs – These innovative, hydraulic driven submersible pumps allow quick access to open water sources as far as 197 ft, horizontally or vertically, from a drivable surface.  The HydroSubs are diesel engine driven with state of the art controls for safety and reliability.  Pumping capacities range from 396 GPM to 8,190 GPM at 16 ft of lift.  See Hytrans to learn more about these innovative and highly reliable pumping systems.

This system involves no vacuum priming or drafting. This greatly improves reliability and allows water sources requiring lifts of more than 15 ft to be recognized for ISO water supply credits.

    • Hale Fire Pumps – This highly experienced pump manufacturer provides a wide selection of float, pack, skid, trailer, and fire apparatus mounted centrifugal fire pumps from 90 to 5,000 GPM.  Learn more about Hale here.

HFRC can help firefighters to reach and effectively utilize water sources that would normally be deemed unusable due to excessive lifts, physical obstructions, mud flats, freezing climates and other conditions.  HFRC and the firefighting & fire suppression products it offers can help you overcome these hurdles through the use of:

  • Hytrans HydroSub Units
  • Stand pipes and dry hydrants.
  • Water jet eductor technologies.
  • Other specialized pumps and equipment/systems.