Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to pump.

That was the case for Hall County firefighters trying to douse flames Sunday night at a lake-vicinity home on Spain Hill Road.

Hall County Fire Chief David Kimbrell said fire trucks weren’t able to get close enough to access the lake.

“The truck has to be within 8 or 10 feet of the water, there was no way to get the truck down to the lake, and it’s almost impossible to get a truck that close,” Kimbrell said. “Basically, the (Army Corps of Engineeers) doesn’t allow a lot of new building and construction to protect the integrity of the shore.”

One possible solution, Kimbrell says, is a fire boat.

“Fire hydrants don’t do any good on places like the lake. Fire boats are the only answer for those areas like the fire the other night, because you just pull the fire boat up into the cove and pump water from the lake and, in theory, have an unlimited water supply,” he said.

The closest fire hydrant, Kimbrell said, was 0.7 mile away, and “pretty much there are no fire hydrants out there.”

What stops the county from getting hydrants out that way?

“Dollars. It’s expensive to run a water line down there, and the city of Gainesville owns the water system,” Kimbrell said.

Gainesville Fire Chief Jerome Yarbrough said that the city doesn’t face the same accessibility issues, with hydrants within 250 feet — 500 at the most — of houses in the city limits, he said.

Kimbrell said the void of service in those parts of Hall County affects insurance rates.

“In the areas where there are no fire hydrants, they pay a class 9. It doesn’t matter if you have a fire station next door — you still pay the highest rate,” Kimbrell said.

John Murray, fire chief for Rabun County and volunteer firefighter for Hall County, said that was a factor in Rabun’s acquisition of fire boats — the first county to do so in Georgia.

“We have three major lakes that we staff boats on: Lake Burton, Seed and Rabun,” he said. “We just run a six-inch PVC from the lake up to the top of the road access to the residences. The boat actually hooks up to that standpipe. It’s basically portable hydrants. The boat is the pumping apparatus.”

Rabun County was able to better classify homes for fire safety, helping ease insurance rates, Murray said.

“That was one of our big justifications. Not just safety, but (it) also allowed us to give savings to the resident, a customer service to our constituent,” Murray said.

In the summer, he said, the boats are employed for lake safety.

“Our boat serves as a dive boat. We have capabilities for divers to function from that apparatus,“ he said. “We use the boats more for water risk purposes than actual fire operation in the summers, really.”

Kimbrell said the fire boats cost anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million, depending on their size and water capacity.