The challenges of fire fighting in towns without hydrants

Shaun Farrar

Jul 29, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Restaurant Barn.

---

TRENTON—When a fire truck zooms past, lights flashing, sirens blaring, thoughts of safety and compassion for the people at the other end of that drive usually prevail. If that truck is heading to a fire, help is on the way in the form of caring, trained people, maintained and ready equipment, and most especially, water.

Upon arrival, that water carrying truck and its operators will begin putting water on that fire as fast as possible, usually within a matter of minutes. Also, within a matter of minutes, that truck will be empty, no more water to spray.

But the water supply situation is often times more dire than that.

According to Trenton Fire Chief Steve Heckman, “most typical tankers are 1,500-3,000 gallons. To fill 1,000 feet of 4” hose, it will take close to 700 gallons just to fill the hose. Departments that use 5” hose, it requires around 1000 gallons just to fill the hose, and a drop of water hasn’t hit the fire yet!”

“On a typical structure fire, I would expect to flow 300-500 gallons a minute. At the Open Hearth fire we had two ladder pipes operating and they flow 500 gallons a minute,” Chief Heckman said.

Therefore, if a department has a 3,000 gallon tanker truck and is using 1,000 feet of 4” hose spraying at the lower rate of 300 gallons a minute, that truck will be dry in about 7.5 minutes.

Or, even worse.

“At the latest fire at Baxter Ledge we had 800’ feet of 4” and 1000’ of 5” to get water to the fire. So, it is easily expected that the first tanker will often just fill the hose!” said Chief Heckman.

In towns without municipal water supplies and fire hydrant systems, water supply is a huge issue. Where does more water come from? Additional fire trucks, ponds and dry hydrants, and cisterns are the most common sources of additional water.

Chief Heckman continued, “As a chief, national consensus standards state that I need to establish 1,000 gallons a minute for 60 minutes (60,000 gallons) for one and two family dwellings that are under 2,000 square feet. It gets larger for larger buildings and that’s often why fire sprinklers are needed.

“How I go about figuring that out is the challenge. Nearby water supplies, tanker shuttles, travel times, water on wheels that I bring, and what is automatically brought from our automatic aid partners comes into play.”

With the exception of six dry hydrants, two of which are out of service due to maintenance needs, Trenton is a town without a hydrant system and Chief Heckman wants to make the Town of Trenton a little more defensible to fires. One way to do that is to add more water cisterns.

A cistern is a man-made reservoir, usually underground, that holds liquid, in this case water, that is already there waiting to be used.

Trenton has two existing cisterns, one at Acadia Fuel with a 15,000 gallon capacity and one at the Acadia Gateway Center with a 24,000 gallon capacity. These two cisterns are not enough, mostly due to the fact that they are located, by necessity of what they are protecting, in fairly close proximity. Additionally, neither of them meets the 30,000 gallon minimum necessary for a town to receive insurance “credits.”

The town is currently working on the planning and construction of a third cistern, which was recommended in the town’s 2006 comprehensive plan and has been undergoing planned funding for the last five years, according to Chief Heckman.

That cistern will be located at the intersection of Bayside Road and Cottage Lane on what is shown on the map below as plot #2. This cistern was previously held up by DEP limitations, but with the acquisition of the land by the town the project can move forward, according to Chief Heckman.

At the July 21 meeting of the Trenton Select Board, Heckman’s request for proposal (RFP) for the new cistern was approved by the Select Board. Heckman wants to send the RFPs out to potential bidders and then set a date for a walk through of the site with any potential bidders so that they can be more familiar with the site and the project goals.

Another cistern is proposed to be located at the Trenton Business (Industrial) Park. The business park, by nature of its inhabitant businesses, can pose a large fire risk and there is currently no water supply at the park. The town is hoping to be awarded a community resilience grant to help fund this project and is awaiting word on whether or not they will be awarded a grant.

---

Additional Select Board Business From July 21 Meeting

While Chief Heckman had the floor, an audience member asked about the status of the town’s new Smokey Bear fire danger sign. Chief Heckman said that it has been received and is at the fire station but needed some assembly upon receipt. That assembly is on the list of things to be done by the fire department Chief Heckman said.

LIQUOR LICENSE RENEWALS

Two liquor license renewals were approved by the Select Board. The licenses of Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound and Acadia Lobster (Aquatic Seafood Group LLC) were both renewed.

APPOINTMENT RENEWALS

The Select Board renewed some town position appointments.

Jamie Abbott had her appointments to the following positions renewed.

• Deputy Treasurer
• Deputy Registrar
• Deputy Clerk
• Deputy Administrative Assistant

Select Board member John Bennett’s appointment as the town’s harbormaster was renewed.

Jarod Rollins was renewed as the town’s representative to Hancock County Planning Commission.

Lisa Winger was renewed as the town’s emergency management director.

NEW TOWN OFFICE SIGN

The Select Board approved the purchase of a new electronic message board style sign for the town office.

Member Judith Sproule expressed some concern about the brightness of the sign at night and Chair Fred Ehrlenbach said that the whole front of the building is lit up at night and that the sign won’t really be adding to any light pollution.

Sproule also wondered if the sign would be hard to operate and asked if it can be operated by town employees easily. Ehrlenbach responded that the staff will be receiving training on how to run the sign.

The quote from Davinci Signs was $18,400 installed. The amount that was approved for the sign at town meeting was $20,000. That leaves the town about $1,600 for necessary electrical work for the sign, according to Ehrlenbach.

CODE ENFORCEMENT NOTICES OF VIOLATION

At the July 21 Select Board meeting, the board reviewed two notice of violation letters that had been recently sent to Trenton businesses by Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain. The board made no comments regarding the letters.

The first notice of violation was sent to Downeast Lobster Pound LLC, which is Currents Restaurant, for not drawing a permit for a new bandstand prior to construction.

The second notice of violation was sent to Clifford O’Sullivan LLC, which is the open Hearth Inn, for not drawing a permit for what appears to be a new hot tub platform and enclosure.

Chamberlain said that most times these sorts of violations are more than likely an oversight or just plain lack of knowledge and are often times easily rectified by communicating with her.

“Rather than assuming you don’t need a permit, call and ask. Most people probably just don’t realize and don’t bother checking,” she said.

FINAL MIL RATE FOR FY2026/27

Chair Ehrlenbach told the rest of the Select Board that after the budget increases approved at the special town meeting that was held on July 7, the town’s MIL rate is now 13.07 which is a 7.13% increase over the 12.20 mill rate of last year.

---

All photos courtesy Trenton Volunteer Fire Department unless otherwise cited.

---

HELP SUPPORT THE BAR HARBOR STORY

When we started The Bar Harbor Story, we didn’t know if anyone would read it. But you showed up. You shared. You sent tips. Now—over 400,000 views every month later—it’s clear: people here care about their community and each other.

We’ve kept everything free because news should never be out of reach, but every one of our stories takes time to write, and your support keeps The Bar Harbor Story going.

If you value our work, please consider a paid subscription, a founding membership, or a sponsorship.

It truly helps us cover one more meeting, tell one more story, shine one more light.

Even $5 a month makes a difference. Click here to become a one-time supporter now.

Thank you so much for being here.

Founding member information can be found here.

Have questions about sponsorships? Just send Shaun an email at sfarrar86@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you.