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Can You Find Your Hydrants After a Heavy Snowfall?
Winter is coming sooner than we think. In years past we've had areas where, after a heavy snowfall, the fire hydrants disappear due to ignorant civilians plowing out their driveways and covering them up. In addition to an awareness campaign trying to educate homeowners about the dangers of not keeping the hydrants near their homes unburied, my town has installed steel rods with little flags on top that attach to one of the caps on the hydrant. They easily flex out of the way when opening or closing the hydrant.
Several ajoining towns have done similar things to ensure their hydrants are able to be located after heavy snowfall. I was wondering what other F.D's are doing about this.
Several ajoining towns have done similar things to ensure their hydrants are able to be located after heavy snowfall. I was wondering what other F.D's are doing about this.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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If we had snow, and wouldn't that be nice just for the water runoff each spring... oh well, not with global warming. This may become a moot subject... (LOL) anyway, if we had snow I would want to have a strip of 3M retro-reflective blue strips attached to the top of the installed steel rods. You may consider actually attaching a this metal plate to affix the 3M blue marker material onto. This is akin to using blue roadway hydrant marker dots that we use all over the place and have since the 1980's. Anything that you can do to improve visibility is the goal here. The use of retro-reflective material will ensure that the reflective capability gives you the most bang for the buck. Blue, a color that can be from a further distance than any other color, will stick out like a sore thumb if you give it enough surface area and the reflective material. Hit it with a spot light and it lights up like a bright neon sign.
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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well Brian, we're from the far North and we get a lot of snow up here, and we attach a 6' pole that has a reflector on it so its easy to see. Our only problem is getting to it or sometimes just digging it out.
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Permalink Reply by Keisha Broach on
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I'd be curious to know how many of these you lose each year to damage, attempted theft, etc. Our Ass't Chief is looking into them, but is concerned about loss.
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actually in my 12 years I'd say maybe one a year and we've got about 100 hydrants in our area, we put them out when snow is already on the ground, so maybe its just to cold for someone to get out and steal them but, we seem to lose one here or there, but we've never had a major lose of them, but now that you said something, we might now..............knock on wood:)
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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We mark ours with palm trees. The palm trees must be at least 20 feet in height so they'll be visible regardless of any snow depth in which we can drive our apparatus.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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We use the same post / flag set-up and they have reflector tape on the flag. We do not service, test or maintain them, (this includes shoveling them out during winter) They are owned by the water department and they take care of them for us. Most of them are plowed with a small sidewalk plow as the city owns the first 15 feet of all property.
The FD also went out and marked the utility poles with small reflectors. A reflector is placed on the side of the pole which faces the nearest hydrant. These light up with a spot or headlights fairly well at night.
We keep a shovel on every piece in case the storm is ongoing and the hydrant needs to be shoveled by the engineer.
Lastly, we are now 100% GPS with computers in the trucks, so we can look at the GPS map with the hydrants on a computer. I have the option to look at a drawing of streets / property lines / driveways / rivers / streams / and hydrants or I can change the view to the actual overhead tax map photo of the property (real aerial photo). Great for wondering what is just over the ridge or how close is the next home on another street etc...
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Permalink Reply by Allen Wahlstrom on
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Snow??? What's that?
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LOL didn't mean to jinx you!
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Allen, see my post above for how we handle it on the little semi-tropical island where I work. :-)
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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I drive past several of them every day, and so far none are missing.
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Excellent, Ben. Because we all know those South Carolina snow storms can be murder...LOL!
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I've found that planting my tongue firmly in my cheek does wonders when preventing those August blizzards in the semi-tropical island environment. So far, it has a 100% success rate for Hilton Head Island. :-)
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