NFPA 291- Are Your Fire Hydrants Up to the Standard?

I was just wondering, when I went throught the Academy (many moons ago), we had to learn about NFPA 291: Recommended practice for Fire Flow Testing and Marking Hydrants. It goes as follows:

Class AA - Light Blue - 1500 GPM or greater.
Class A - Green - 1000- 1499 GPM.
Class B - Orange - 500- 999 GPM.
Class C - Red - less than 500 GPM.

In my travels around Chicagoland, I have yet to find a town that uses this! My town's hydrants are all red, regardless of their GPM output. Other towns use red, orange, yellow, etc. regardless of the GPM output. Still other towns have their hydrants painted up like soldiers, dalmations, etc.

Is there anyone out there that actually goes by this NFPA Standard?

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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on September 14, 2008 at 5:39pm

What about purple? I was visiting one of my kids a couple of years ago in the bay area. In a commercial area they are using reclaimed water for fire protection. Bldg sprinklers and hydrants. Purple being the color of reclaimed water.