Water Source Officers?

[x635 4,066]

Just out of curiosity, are "Water Source Officers" a position on the fireground, or does this responsibilty fall under the chief or line officers directly?

Just wondering if any dept uses waters source officers on the fireground to coordinate water supply operations, and what kind of training and function do these people have?

[TRUCK6018 50]

The water source officer or water supply officer is an appointment under IMS or ICS. I have seen both lines officers or mutual aid chiefs fullfill the position. The water source officer is appointed by the IC.

The water supply officer is most commonly used during a tanker operation. The water supply officer is responsible to coordinate the tanker drops if there are multiple dump tanks and to coordinate the fill sites if more than one are needed.

While there is nothing that says an individual must have a certain level of training to hold the post, it should be someone familiar with tanker op's and IMS. It would be a plus if the individual is familiar with the tankers being utilized. Whether the tankers have dump valves, where they are, size of the tanker, etc.

[PVFD113 6]

In our chain of command our Captain is the OIC of water supply ops. We utilize the following positions-Chief, 1st and 2nd asst. chiefs, Captain, 1st lieutenant, and 3 Second lieutenants. The pre req for becoming an officer is 3 years of active service, Pump Ops (and now EVOC) for everuthing up to 1st lieutenant. You cannot advance above a lieutenants position without compleating an officers training course. You also must hold the position of Lieutenant for a minimum of 3 years. Under a "normal" cycle, you have 10 years as an officer when you enter your 6 years of a Chiefs position. I am in favor of requiring more training for our officers--going forward of course, the "top" of our list now has more more than sufficient training and experiance. For the most part--I have noticed-if you have any plans on becoming an officer--you already have taken a bunch of classes and will continue to--you love what you do and want to do more--you give your time--hours and hours of time dedication, you are not only making a committment to "hold a position", you are a leader, teacher, mentor, and ultimately--the burdon is on you--you are responsible for your people--you need to grow and learn so you can pass your knowledge along

[Remember585 815]

A majority of the time when we are dealing with a water shuttle operation, we have used Deputy Chiefs to oversee this task.

[LCFD994 8]

Our IC will appoint a department officer or member or an officer from a mutual aid department as the "water source or supply officer"