Pool way found to fight fires
by Chris Wilson

If you're trying to relax by your pool, but worrying about the threat of a wildfire to your home, then an Ojai man may have just the thing for you.
Colin Jones, who owns two fire protection businesses, has recently begun distributing a product that promises to turn your pool into a firefighting asset.
"The Avenger" is a tool that will pump the water from your pool at 80 gallons per minute, and could save your home from an approaching fire. Using a pump run by a 3.5 horse power Briggs and Stratton engine, The Avenger can spray water in a 100-foot stream at 15 times the flow rate of a garden hose.
"With the average pool being 20,000 gallons, that provides people with four to five hours of firefighting protection," Jones says.
Living on a precipice overlooking the Ojai Valley, thick chaparral covers a large portion of his 10-acre property, and ash from the Wolf Fire is still settling on the surface of the lima bean- shaped pool. But Jones is confident that with this handy tool, at the very least he could keep a fire at bay, keep the roof of his house moist and have a fighting chance of saving his home.
"There was a fire a few years back in Laguna Hills, and I remember seeing all these burned-out homes on television and pools full of water," Jones says. "And I thought, 'What a waste.'"
At first just wanting to protect his own home, Jones contacted McKenna Engineering in Torrance and purchased The Avenger for himself.
But he loved the product so much, he decided to distribute it through his company, Sprinkmatic. His son, 10-year-old Connor, even enjoys operating it and demonstrated it, dousing a eucalyptus tree nearly 100 feet from the house.
The Avenger retails for $1,899, comes with 50 feet of fire hose with adjustable nozzle, and a rollaway case.
For more information about The Avenger, contact Jones at 640-9676, on his cell phone at 732-0139 or by email sprinkmatic@msn.com.

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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