Locked hydrants!?

[mcwops]

Guess the department better have a set of bolt cutters with their hydrant wrenchs in the hydrant pack.

http://www.firefighterclosecalls.com/news/fullstory/newsid/113508

[tree68]

A regional water authority here put a special cap on their hydrants, but not locks. Regular hydrant wrenches won't work. They supplied each department through which their water line runs with the appropriate wrench (which I believe is also available through suppliers if one wants to buy one) and the departments are supposed to report usage.

As far as I know, fire departments don't have to pay for what they use, though. I think the water authority sees it as a cost of doing business. In fact, since the line generally supplies local municipal systems, the only place it would be used for firefighting is in the rural areas through which it passes.

[MemphisE34a]

The water department said cut the locks, that's what they should do......to ALL of them.

[BLSboy]

What type of locks are they, just a regular master or a hardened one?
Seriously it should take even a decent fireman 5 seconds to cut that lock if its a regular Master with bolt cutters.
A tank holds (generally) 500 gallons of water. Even a 2 1/2 in line will flow (roughly) 200-250 gal.
Thats 2 min before Bingo.
5 sec to cut a lock will not make a difference.


This really sounds like a ******ing match between the FD and the H20 company.

[ADSNWFLD]

Most of us have heard it before, "you use too much water", "you're breaking water mains by closing the hydrant too fast", "you don't know how to use the hydrant" etc.
Our water department claimed we used 1,000,000 gallons of water at drill...till they found several leaking mains in town.
This is absolute BS. Just keep a set of bolt cutters nearby, it won't delay things enough to make a difference. In the meantime have the chief make nice with the water department.
Paying for FF water is totally wrong, have them Bill the homeowner and see how far that goes.

[FyredUp]

Sounds to me like a perfect case to take to the court of public opinion. Do an article in the local paper detailing what is going on, explaining what problems it may cause and see what the public thinks. If they are concerned or outraged over it my belief is it will change. If they don't care...so be it.

My village tried to have us put a water meter on every time we used water in a drill until we explained that a 2 inch meter simply was not going to flow enough water in some cases. We agreed to make an educated estimate of how much water we used and to document it. So far so good.

[firemanpat29]

the hydrant infront of our station, wich is the one they want us to use to normally refill the trucks and tanker, has a watermeter. (its also the only hydrant in town that is on the far side of the sidewalk, and has a lamp post on the street side of walk where the rest of the hydrants are) The town "charges" the fire dept for that water. I dont think they charge us for using the others in a fire.

[nmfire]

The water company in CT does not charge or care. They ask that we report significant usage just so they know they don't have some big leak. In fact, with one phone call they'll boost the supply pumps to give us MORE free water.

[Dickey]

We don't get charged for water but they sure do make us keep track of what water we use. Last year the City had about an 8 million gallon deficit and got in trouble with the Department of Natural Resources (water is a natural resource)

So now the water department is very jumpy whenever we use water to make sure we report a guess as to how much we use. We guess very high

[ChiefKN]

The water department said cut the locks, that's what they should do......to ALL of them.

Amen... not a cop in my town that would arrest us.

What a crock

[Acklan]

I wish we could pay for just the water we use. Our private water company charges the department a $50\yr per hydrant fee. We have 8600 hydrants in the city alone. That is $480,000 whether we flow or not.

[fire49]

Have seen the locks also

One explanation I heard was to prevent terrorist from pumping stuff into the system

[CrnkB8]

Just cut the lock if you need to use it. I can cut through a lock (especially the one in the picture) in less time than it takes to fumble with a key. I see the problem with NOT notifying the fire dept prior to the installation, especially since not many of use carry bolt cutters in our hydrant bags, which could delay and/or hamper efforts to establish a water supply.

Also, keys get lost, locks freeze up and rust. Suppose you are in a cold weather area or area that receives a lot of moisture. Unless the lock is maintained in an operable condition, keys are almost useless. I could see having a key to unlock the hydrant for training, but in an emergency, "just cut the lock".

I think it's ridiculous that they want to charge the fire dept for water usage, especially since the reason we have hydrants is for firefighting purposes. Our water dept doesn't charge us, but we have to report usage along with the amount of water used.

Based on the article, it sounds like the "differences" between the fire dept and water dept didn't just develop overnight.

[hwoods]

Idiots............

Probably one of the Stupidest things I've ever seen. Obstruct our access to a Water source, Public or Private, and you're going to Jail. No Question. Again, one of those Small Town ego trip things by the Water People. I'll say this for the Umpy Gazillionth Time: Every Fire Department on the Planet should have FREE and IMMEDIATE ACCESS to all of the Water that they Want. Period. Regardless of wether it's a Fire, a Drill, a Pump Test, Whatever. Again, this is one of those areas where small people in a small town should be removed from their positions. This is another example of why I am such a big proponent of ending all local Government below the County Level. a Vast majority of our problems in the Fire Service are caused or continued by Little People in Little Positions...........

[Strayhorn51]

Hydrant locks

Bet they would have trouble keeping a lock on hydrants nearest my house