Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment
Sep 11, 2026 · 41 min · 8 segments
The latest episode of the Moving Water podcast tackles persistent misconceptions surrounding relay pumping. Hosts Chris McLoone, Andy Soccodato, and Bill Adkins challenge the common myth that relay…
about? Yeah, mostly when the first apparatus arrives, they may not be able to hit the water supply right away.
In the Royal setting, we may be a long driveway, so we don't want tankers to back up driveways, so we will drop a tail at the end of the driveway and allow the next due apparatus to relay pump to us.
But in the urban setting, it could be a long driveway itself, or maybe they can't find the hydrant right away.
The crew gets out and starts doing their work, and the next apparatus will bring in the water.
And what that apparatus will do is hook up to either a hydrant or be ready for the water shuttle operation.
operation and they will push their water they start we usually will start with our tank water if we can and then establish the water supply and then push it forward to the first new apparatus
i think you know what what i see is uh in my experience a lot of people think that uh you know when we talk about relay pumping they get in their head that relay pumping is only a tactic when we have to go a long distance.
So we need to have three, four, five, six pumpers in a line to overcome a distance problem.
And while that is a way that we can employ a relay pumping operation, The way I like to think about it is a relay is really any time one rig is pumping to another rig.
It could be a hundred foot, right? If we have a pump that's pumping to another rig, that's a relay.
Now, the complexity of the relay is going to depend on a lot of other variables, and I'm sure we're going to talk about them here.
But, you know, things as simple as a lot of us in the fire service today are using the tactic known as the booster backup, right, where the first engine doesn't lay in.
The second engine comes and lays that supply line and then pumps their tank water directly to that first engine.
So, you know, while most of us have a very specific operation in our mind when that term relay pumping comes into the forefront, right, it's important to understand that it really is a broad topic.
about? Yeah, mostly when the first apparatus arrives, they may not be able to hit the water supply right away.
In the Royal setting, we may be a long driveway, so we don't want tankers to back up driveways, so we will drop a tail at the end of the driveway and allow the next due apparatus to relay pump to us.
But in the urban setting, it could be a long driveway itself, or maybe they can't find the hydrant right away.
The crew gets out and starts doing their work, and the next apparatus will bring in the water.
And what that apparatus will do is hook up to either a hydrant or be ready for the water shuttle operation.
operation and they will push their water they start we usually will start with our tank water if we can and then establish the water supply and then push it forward to the first new apparatus
i think you know what what i see is uh in my experience a lot of people think that uh you know when we talk about relay pumping they get in their head that relay pumping is only a tactic when we have to go a long distance.
So we need to have three, four, five, six pumpers in a line to overcome a distance problem.
And while that is a way that we can employ a relay pumping operation, The way I like to think about it is a relay is really any time one rig is pumping to another rig.
It could be a hundred foot, right? If we have a pump that's pumping to another rig, that's a relay.
Now, the complexity of the relay is going to depend on a lot of other variables, and I'm sure we're going to talk about them here.
But, you know, things as simple as a lot of us in the fire service today are using the tactic known as the booster backup, right, where the first engine doesn't lay in.
The second engine comes and lays that supply line and then pumps their tank water directly to that first engine.
So, you know, while most of us have a very specific operation in our mind when that term relay pumping comes into the forefront, right, it's important to understand that it really is a broad topic.
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