Colonial Pipeline Donates $25,000 ​“Water Cannon” To Croft Fire Department

Lewis Hayes, chief at Croft Fire Department, shows off a ​“water cannon” the fire department recently acquired. The piece of equipment will output 4,000 gallons per minute, said Hayes.

By Kim Kimzey

The massive apparatus flows up to 4,000 gallons of water or a foam water concentrate per minute. 

Croft Fire Chief Lewis Hayes said the specialized equipment is made to extinguish petroleum and chemical fires. There are 86 fuel storage tanks in the Croft area. Hayes said the ​“foam cannon” could also extinguish especially large blazes, such as a textile mill, and disperse chemical vapors like a fan.

Colonial Pipeline Company donated $25,000 for the $50,000 nozzle. Other companies in the Croft Petro-Chemical Coalition collectively gave another $15,000.

Colonial Pipeline transports more than 105 million gallons of gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, home heating oil and fuel for the U.S. military every day, company officials said. The company has two major facilities in South Carolina, including one in Spartanburg where there are 22 tanks.

“The Croft Fire Department is a great partner for Colonial Pipeline because we both have the same goal in mind: Keeping people safe. This donation is just one way we support the department so that they’re not only ready, but also able to help if they’re ever needed,” South Carolina Operations Manager Mike Cutting said in a statement.

The Croft Petro-Chemical Coalition is composed of the fire department, as well as area petroleum and chemical companies with a mission to provide improve response to petroleum, chemical and trucking issues and incidents.

The coalition has provided Croft Fire Department $14,000 for training, $150,000 for equipment and $162,000 for foam used to extinguish fuel and chemical fires.

Hayes said the training and equipment not only benefits the Croft area. It’s available to assist agencies local and across the state.

Hayes said before the coalition formed in recent years — a similar group dissolved around 2007 — the fire department had about 750 gallons of available foam. Hayes said that was not nearly enough to battle a large storage tank fire. Depending on the size of the tank, Hayes said firefighters may need up to 4,000 gallons of foam.

“The foam creates a blanket that suppresses the vapors (and) keeps the vapors from coming up and igniting,” Hayes said.

He said the local petroleum company also did not have enough foam on hand, which was a driving factor in reforming a coalition that would allow companies to pool resources.

Hayes said there is collectively almost 5,000 gallons of foam that the fire department could use. The foam, he said, costs $200,000 — an amount few departments could afford.

He said it also is a big savings for taxpayers and another tool that enables firefighters to protect the community.