Fire Hydrant

[kghemtp]

As part of my other profession (landscaping), I recently came into ownership of a real fire hydrant that I intend to plant in a "firefighter's corner" of my home's landscaping. Anyone have similar or other interesting stories or thoughts?


~Kevin
FF/Paramedic

[nmfire]

Hook it up to water and use it to water the plants.

[dfdex1]

I have a "Hydrent" in my yard. My town paints there yellow/white which I think looks stupid and they also left about 18" of riser on it. So I took a sledge hammer on a cold afternoon and beat the crap out of it till it broke up to the break line and I took a small hammer and did details up to the break line and now it sits perfectly flat. I also built a special dolly to wheel it around for training for fire musters. I throughly washed it and scrapped loose paint of and got a quart can of Rust-O-Leum Sunrise Red Gloss. Sunrise red is the sterotypical color for trucks and hydrents. I put on a scratch coat and let it dry then went back and I put on about 2 more coats of paint. I would paint the caps sepratly. I also throughly cleaned the brass fittings with a stiff nylon brush and steel wool,then put a light coat of 3in 1 oil and they wont tarnish. I found with the red you can see the foundry info so much better than with the yellow/white and the gloss it always looks "freshly" painted. Mine right now is just sitting in the dirt. As for mounting it I just made the dirt flat and put it in and it just kinda sits there and take a great effort to knock over. Make sure you have help dragging them around and lifting them,its not worth getting a herina over a yard decoration! If you do a search on here I had a thread about it whne I got mine and people had posted pics of thiers.

Good Luck
-dfd

P.S,I also have a real hydrent in front of my house and I've often wonderd if there was a fire which one we would hook up to cause mine looks so real!!!!!

[ullrichk]

A humane shelter where I grew up had an old hydrant outside the front door with a sign reading "K-9 Restroom"

I always got a chuckle out of that.

[nmfire]

Originally posted by dfdex1
So I took a sledge hammer on a cold afternoon and beat the crap out of it till it broke up to the break line and I took a small hammer and did details up to the break line and now it sits perfectly flat.

Wait a minute. You smashed a town hydrant out of the ground you could have it as a collectible?

[dfdex1]

No nmfire,even I got limits.LOL This winter some plow had knocked one of its pipe and it was deposited in front of my house and I called the PD (NON-emergency) just to notify them. They sent a crusier and when I was out talking to the cop who I knew the water dept. came to get it and I asked just for S&G if I could have it and I was shocked when he said yes!He said well you cant have this one cause this is still servicable but we got alot around the shop you can have and the next saturday I saw hydrent and a crater where the hydrent landed on my lawn. They had left about 18-20" on the riser on it--thats the part I broke off because it was about 5' tall.

Hmmmm I can read the headline now "Fire Explorer beats of hydrent for fun,Towns ISO rateing drops."

[5pts384]

Our VFD just received a servicable hydrent "we hope". We are building a 30,000 gal above ground reservoir.If this works it will be the only hydrent in 50 sq. miles

[3Swings]

Watch out if you use the hydrant for landscaping.

We have an Assistant Chief who put an old hydrant in his front yard as a lawn decoration. Every couple of years we hear about one of our fellow firefighters stopping at the hydrant to refill after a call. It's really kind of comical when they can't figure out why the hydrant doesn't work.

[Engine5FF]

My Dad has his mail box (a fire truck shaped one) mounted to a pole that is in turn mounted through the center of a red and silver hydrant.

Kennedy Valve, one of the largest hydrant makers in the country, is here in Elmira so several local people have been able to get their hands on older ones and have placed them in their yards from time to time. The former owner of KV even had a chrome hydrant in his front yard. See what a bunch of cash can get you?

My engine co. just did the anual inspection of the factory and saw piles of hydrants to be shipped to all over the country. The furthest away were Wash. state and Phoenix.

[July36]

ROFLMAO @ NMFIRES comment... LOLOLOLOLOLOL
I thought the exact same thing when I read that. LMAOOOOO
At least well all know who to look up when we are missing a fire hydrant or we are wanting our own! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Donna C
Fire Chief
BCVFD