Fire service emptying swimming pools

[Pipster]

I often get queries from members of the public, wanting to know if the CFS will assist in emptying their swimming pool - and some wanting to know if CFS will then fill it up again!

So, I pose the question (out of curiosity, rather than necessity) would your brigade assist in emptying a swimming pool - not an emergency pump out, nor utilising it for a water supply at a fire, but just because the owners want to empty the pool to conduct maintenance.

If your brigade would assist, would you want a donation for it?

Pip

[HeavyRescue]

My parents got our local brigade to do this to our pool about 15 years ago. the brigade would have been Willunga, or one of the surrounding brigades as we lived in that area at the time...
They did provide a donation to the CFS, was like $100 or something. I was pretty young to remember the excact amount.

Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with emptying pools, but as for filling them up, I am not opposed to it, just not so sure about a few things;
e.g the water costs, and the overall image it portrays to the public who have no idea that the homeowner may have donated to the CFS, and that the CFS are not just doing it because they are mates with the home owner...

[Alan (Big Al)]

yes would empty it for a donation, but no i wouldnt refill it, everyone else has to pay for water to fill their pools, so should they.

[straps]

You would want to be very careful from a liability POV in case some damage occurred during the emptying or filling process.. A homeowners insurance may not pay out and they may look to CFS to repair / make good any damage etc and this could be especially costly if it involved pool liners / actual integrity of the pool itself etc.

[Shiner]

And what about the environmental impact of sending chlorinated water down a storm drain or into a paddock?  You could end up with an issue much bigger than the slab of beer you took for it!

[Darius]

Interesting about requesting assistance to empty it, not heard of that before.  Am trying to think when I was a kid we had a pool and I'm sure you just opened the right series of valves and the pool pump pumped it out into the street.  Surely everyone in CFS areas has their own pumps anyway!  Re filling up again, we have once mostly filled a small pool for a brigade member but generally no.

[HeavyRescue]

Disregard

[bajdas]

I have been approached during the last few years & the local Unit said no. Owner needed to repair some cracks which resulted in a very slow leak.
Unit did not wish to risk pump seals on a salt water pool, if one person hears/sees it then multiple people could ask, where was the water to go to, council approval, EPA considerations, etc, etc.
Also, taking money away from a small business owner.

[BundyBear]

The couple of brigades I've been at won't fill pools anymore for the reason listed below:

You spend more time doing the task than the donation is generally worth.

Grey area in regards to filling the pool with non metered water.

Liability on the brigade if any damage is caused.

Owners can go hire a portable pump and hose from a hire place!

[gasman]

Used to be that once upon a time we used to do things for people in our community because that was the community minded thing to do. There was no mention of liability and no form of payment other than a carton of beer. What the hell has happened to us as a community? filtered poor if you ask me.

[BundyBear]

Used to be that once upon a time we used to do things for people in our community because that was the community minded thing to do. There was no mention of liability and no form of payment other than a carton of beer. What the hell has happened to us as a community? filtered poor if you ask me.

Things change, plus the role of a volunteer firefighter has altered and become more in depth i.e. more compentencies to maintain, so how much time do they dedicate?

Between incident response, training, equipment maintenance, P/R jobs and hazard reduction burns during summer. I'm pretty sure the average CFS firefighter has provided their bit to the community over their years of service!

[gasman]

I agree with you Bundybear, dont get me wrong. It seems to me though that we are ever increasingly being threatened with liability which in turn scares people off of doing something as a favour. As for volunteers giving up their time, we all give up our time to help the community because we want to not because we have to.

[CFS_Firey]

I'd be happy to empty a pool for someone (for a donation) but I definitely wouldn't refill it.

Bundy, you're right about the expectations on firefighters being high these days, but I wouldn't consider that a good reason to prevent people from doing these services if they're happy to! (Fair enough if people don't volunteer extra time for it though)