RRT fills up NSW fire trucks on the front line with water

The Rapid Relief Team (RRT) has designed and engineered a mobile water pump and frac tank to provide fire trucks on the frontline access to hard to reach water. Initially stationed on Wolgan Valley Road, RRT’s Rapid Water System (RWS) has been redeployed to support firies fighting the blaze in Katoomba, NSW.

In the first 72 hours RWS filled 200 fire trucks, including the largest fire truck, the CAT 1, which holds up to 3,500 litres of water and takes just 2 mins 38 seconds to fill.

The $450,000 Rapid Water System has been designed to assist Australia’s firefighting efforts by making previously inaccessible water due to remote locations, available for emergency services to use by pumping this water to a central staging area for use by fire trucks and aerial bombers.

The RRT’s specialist teams can helicopter, tractor or crane in a pump to the water source, usually inaccessible to trucks, and pump up to 75,000 litres of water at a time into a specialised frac tank.

The RWS then pumps this water into up to three fire trucks at the same time, or water bombers at up to 4,000 litres per minute, with the ability to fill about 19 fire trucks with each frac tank.

Ron Arkcoll, Managing Director of RRT, said they are humbled to support frontline heroes who are working overtime to get these fires under control.

“We know this fire season has been challenging – and want to extend our heartfelt thanks to the men and women who have been standing on the frontline, day in and day out, for months on end,” Mr Arkcoll said.