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Shady Cove installs water tank By MELISSA MARTIN SHADY COVE - A fire district that protects a town without hydrants recently installed a 30,000-gallon storage tank to add to their arsenal of firefighting tools. "It will be a lot quicker to get water out of the tank than draft it out of the river," said Fire District 4 Chief Robert Miller. "The boat ramp at Shady Cove Park gets crowded in the summer. It will be easier for us to pull our trucks around back to the tank and fill up here." Fire District 4 has five paid employees and 18 volunteers who protect about 5,100 people and $243 million worth of homes, businesses and land. The district covers 55 square miles along Highway 62, from Lost Creek Lake to Highway 234. The station is in Shady Cove. They protect a city that has no fire hydrants because it has no public water system. As a result, the district is equipped to haul water or pump it out of swimming pools, irrigation districts, creeks, ponds, private tanks, the Rogue River and now, their newly-installed water tank, Miller said. It's also the only regional fire district that prohibits burn barrels once fire season starts, which happened on May 15, a month earlier than usual. The district is gearing up for what may be the driest summer since 1994. "This is going to be a dry year and the potential is there to have a bad fire season," said Capt. Rick Lowe. "If we can get homeowners and loggers to pay attention to what they are doing and have few lightning strikes, hopefully, we'll be all right." Recently, firefighters used a flatbed and two log trucks to haul the donated water tank to Shady Cove from a Jacksonville-area mine. They dug a trench and laid pipes to connect the tank to the district's well. A welder attached hose fittings and nozzles. The tank is filled and ready for use. It adds 30,000 gallons to what the district's previous storage supply of 6,200 gallons. The stored water could also be used as an emergency drinking water supply, in case an extended power outage leaves residential well pumps powerless, Miller said. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.