Firefighters on bikes race to Dorchester fire

Have you ever been in a crazy working situation where things are kind of crazy? Ive never been a fire fighter but Ive been on work crews where people are coming and going and vehicles are going all over the place (ah working at a summer camp in college lol) and I can tell you things get crazy when trying to supply water to that many people. Those big water jugs need to be filled and transported and can tip and the list goes on and on. Bottled water has a longer shelf life and can just sit there for long periods of time, they are also better situated for mobile transportation and are easier to disperse to thirsty firefighters. They also are more portable and can be reclosed. Normally Im all for eliminating water bottles , but I do draw some slack for someone who just stepped out of a flaming building.

There isn't always a source of fresh drinking water available to refill those coolers. My dad worked road crews in arid, remote areas and they carried enormous amounts of water for a 12 hour shift in 100F heat (something like two gallons per guy) because they couldn't count on a place to refill them.

Now they would likely have used bottled water, since they had issues with sanitizing the water tanks on a daily basis as it was. Sure, they had the newbies scrubbing, bleaching, and filling the things, but that usually came out of overtime pay when they were paving as much as possible during the summer.