After losing access to their original water source for use during fires, the Peyton Fire Protection District had to find another way to get water. The PFPDís board of directors voted to seek funding for a 30,000 gallon cistern, pumping system and backup generator, which would cost the district about $130,000, said Leon Gomes, PFPD board president and district manager.In an email to The New Falcon Herald, Gomes wrote, ìThe District previously had access to a 40,000 gallon cistern at Peyton High School. The District and its mutual aid partners used 25,000 gallons of water from that cistern to fight a hay barn fire on Bradshaw Road in the fall of 2012. That amount of water use caused a number of costly system failures at Peyton High School. The school district asked us to limit our use of that water source to only Peyton Fire apparatuses. This limitation meant that we would no longer be able to establish the high school cistern as the water operations location in the event of a major fire.îIn a separate interview, Gomes said, ìThe board authorized us to seek a grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs from their energy and mineral impact program. We applied for it. The grant was supposed to be considered in September but the flooding caused delays so we had to wait to see if they would approve it or put it (the grant money) toward the floods. A few weeks later, we got notified that our application was approved for $64,000, which is about half of the cost of the project.îGomes said the district will front the other half of the $130,000, and will begin construction on the project in June. He said the cistern will be located behind the fire station, with the first phase consisting of the installation of the cistern and pumping system. The final phase will be the installation of the backup generator, Gomes said.The pumping system will pump water from the cistern onto the truck instead of PFPD personnel having to pump water out of the cistern, Gomes said. ìWe wouldnít have to have an apparatus tied up to pump the water, and it would take less personnel to run it,î he said. ìAll the resources on hand would go to fighting the fire rather than pumping the water.îAdditionally, the district has plans for another project that is not yet funded: the installation of a pipe running from the cistern to the street in front of the fire station, where it will connect to a fire hydrant, Gomes said. ìInstead of tenders (water tanker trucks) having to back up to the cistern, they can pull right up to the hydrant on the street and refill their tanks,î he said. ìEssentially, itíll be a drive-through operation and will be a little faster.î
