You do the math: can 1 000 firefighters pump 104 000 liters of water from one alpine lake over an 800m-high mountain into another lake 24km away?
Helmut Auerbach isn’t sure, either — but he and other organisers of the stunt hope to pull it off and secure a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
Their September 26 attempt, which has never been tried before, will involve linking Lake Attersee in Upper Austria province with Lake Traunsee to the east by laying a seemingly endless line of fire hoses across mountainous terrain and then pumping dyed water through it all.
”We hope that 54 pumps will do the trick, monitored by a notary public who has to certify that the coloured water comes out at the other end” in the town of Altmuenster, Auerbach said on Tuesday.
”Another problem is the flow and pressure of the water through hoses measuring 10cm in diameter,” he said, speaking from Steinbach on Lake Attersee.
Auerbach said the water will be dyed as it enters the pumps so the official will be able to certify that the firefighters didn’t add water from other sources to make their feat easier.
If that’s not offbeat enough, here’s another: in a parallel record attempt, runners of all ages plan to try to beat the speed of the water by covering the same distance on a road parallel with the water course.
Their race will begin the moment the first pump goes into action. — Sapa-AP