04/October/2015 – Mutual Aid to Columbia

Incident # 15-05775 - Over the weekend, the State suffered what has been termed a 1000 year event, receiving record rain fall from Hurricane Joaquin and another weather system, which caused dam failures and severe flooding across South Carolina. The State Capital was swamped with record flooding, dam breeches, closed roads and a failure of the Columbia water system due to broken mains. A request from the State Firefighters Mobilization sent many resources from around the state to Columbia. Colleton County assembled a Tender Strike Team Sunday evening and responded to the Capital to assist. On arrival, the five 3000 gallon Tenders were assigned to a 35 Tender water shuttle to supply water to Providence Hospital to keep the air chillers and water cooled equipment running. The shuttle lasted continuously for two days, with Columbia Engines pumping the water to the facility from three drop tanks set up in the street. The Colleton Tender Strike Team alone shuttled over 270,000 gallons of water.  Colleton units were released on Tuesday morning.