We want to provide the citizens of the City of Swisher Incorporated with information from our department. We believe in providing educational information, so voters can weigh and decide as they wish for their current circumstance, and future generations.
DOWNLOAD and See the document release from the link below.
Question and Answer:
1.) Where does our water come from?
Water comes from in ground wells. That slowly fill our Tankers. We currently have approx. 6000 mobile gallons of water. We have a few in ground water cisterns, primarily located in Shueyville, that we have to draft (pull water) using a complex pumping method from our engines
2.) Where is the nearest fire hydrant?
A difficult question to answer depending on district and fire location. Though fire hydrants can be seen in some newer developments they are not setup nor can they supply a water supply to help us fight fire. We are sometimes allowed to use a Cedar rapids fire hydrant that is a mile up 6th street from 120th. This is water that Swisher Fire can be charged for by the city of cedar rapids unless they grant us permission for emergency use through a 28E agreement.
3.) How does Swisher Fire use water at fire scene?
Everyone knows water is used to put out fire. What is surprising is the amount of water used to fill the hoses first. We call this water on the ground, water we cannot use. From there we use a Rural hitch also known as a Nurse Operation from Tanker to Engine to supply water. The difficult part is structures can use any where between 6,000 – 100,000 gallons of water. Because of this we HEAVILY rely on surrounding fire departments to support the lack of water resources in our coverage district. It also requires us to dedicate nearly 50-75% of our apparatus and personnel to establishing a water supply on EVERY Fire call. This equates to minimal and near dangerous staffing for fighting fire and making rescues for our response district. We are lucky to have surrounding departments willing to help us keep staffing in a safer state but they are delayed in response time. We believe by just improving our water situation we can reduce from 50-75% staff for water supply to be reduced to 3-5%. This drastically tips the odds in the departments favor and protects the citizens, their investments in a way that all incorporated towns in Johnson County already provide in the year 2023.