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What Hydrant?
I enjoy looking for things like hydrant locations and building features whether I am on the job or just out and about. It really makes my wife nuts because I point out what exits we will be using if something happens and things like that. She just doesn’t understand.
Hydrants are a real challenge sometimes. People like to hide them like Easter eggs for the firefighters to find. But, instead of a bright, sunny morning to go hunting for these important pieces of our suppression puzzle, we get to hunt for them in dark, rain or snow driven nights being half awake.
These are just some examples of what property owners do with hydrants. The one shown above is behind a large complex with an anchor store and many ancillary stores in a strip mall. You cannot see this hydrant when you pull into the drive. Notice the leaves are mostly gone and we still can’t see the plug.
This hydrant is the closest to a FDC on the same building. I found this one while doing an inspection at the building next door. I just happen to park where you see this vehicle and as I got out of the vehicle noticed the plug. You have to be looking just in the right place to find this one.
The really bad thing about this plug is that the most obvious hydrant is straight across a four lane road. Odds are that is where the operator would take his line for his supply. In the middle of the night he is going to hit the closest, most visible hydrant.
We don’t only have hydrants that are hidden, but some get damaged and it is never reported or repaired.
Tags:Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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Around here we've had to deal with people planting flowers and tall plants around the hydrant in front of their home or business. Several weeks ago I noticed the hydrant around the corner from my house was surrounded by trash cans and assorted garbage (it was garbage day). I had to explain to the resident that you can't cover up or block in the hydrant because now the F.D. must clear away the trash before they can utilize that hydrant for water supply. That delay could end up costing more property damage or worse someone's life (civilian or Firefighter). You should have seen his eyes widen as the realization hit. Some people are just oblivious to the big picture. Every winter, we've got to keep reminding the landscapers who plow snow to NOT cover the friggin hydrants up with snow! The irony is that many of these guys come from a country that doesn't have snow!
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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I have seen in Japan where they bury hydrants in the street under steel covers and mark them with a sign. Just think if someone parks a vehicle on top of one.
I have seen around here where our public works or the water commission don't check the growth of trees or weeds to keep hydrants visible. The power or cable companies don't even check tree growth around their lines.
I thnk a lot of this is because people get upset when you touch anything growing on their property. Then there are the road crews using a boom style mower will find a hydrant when they drop the mower on top of one and crew it up and damage the mower.
I have just thought of how to use adopt a road or highway groups that collect trash. Let them help locate over grown hydarnts and clear the growth around them. A good citizen activity.
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Permalink Reply by Rod Irvine on
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we have the same problems here except that we use screw down hydrants so carry standpipes on our trucks , I find that the biggest problem here is the lack of marking for them .
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Permalink Reply by Kyle on
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My favorite is when we do our annual hydrant testing and the homeowner comes out yelling and carrying on that we destroyed their garden by spraying a little water. I would sure hate to see their reaction when we need to use it and firefighters are walking through it or pulling away their plants to get to the hydrant.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Oomkes on
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Every winter, we've got to keep reminding the landscapers who plow snow to NOT cover the friggin hydrants up with snow! The irony is that many of these guys come from a country that doesn't have snow!
My favorite kind of "competition". Just seems to be common sense, but I guess not.
But take it easy, some of us scrapers\plowers have a clue. Besides, I hire English speaking employees that are able to converse with customers if need be.
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Hey Mark, kudos on the English speaking thing. What gets me about these guys here is while they may not have ever seen snow before, I'm sure they've seen fire hydrants before. I've been to Mexico and seen them myself! The bad thing is that every year it's a different group. God knows what happens to these guys every year.
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Wait til you get a working fire and the homeowner comes out demanding to know why you're trampling all over the flowers that they've planted around the hydrant!
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Interesting looking hydrant wrench.
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