What were Those Fire Trucks Doing??

Wilma Kenny | Jun 14, 2017

Anyone travelling Rutledge Road between Sydenham and Harrowsmith in the early afternoon last Saturday may well have wondered where the fire was. For an hour or so, several fire trucks raced back and forth between the two villages, sirens howling.

The quick answer is that they were helping keep our fire insurance rates down. A relay of tankers filled up at Sydenham creek near the Rutledge Road bridge in Sydenham, raced off to dump the water on the outskirts of Harrowsmith, turned around and screamed flashing back to Sydenham to repeat the performance. Deputy Chief Veldman took time from directing traffic to confirm that the goal was to prove to insurance actuaries their ability to pump and deliver a given amount of water per minute over a set length of time, in what’s called the Superior Water Shuttle. South Frontenac Volunteer Fire Department has continued to maintain an excellent performance record, which is applied to insurance statistics in rural areas.