Hydrant testing

[Hammerhead338]

Hi everyone, how's it going.

I have a question for you all. Do you have to test the fire hydrants in your city or district. Our old fire chief worked out a deal with the water people and since then we have to test hydrants every year. If you dont test them who does test them and how often. Have a good day and be safe.

Joe
Local 3905

[FyredUp]

Water Department. Our only responsibility is to check in the fall if they drained or not.

[Boots]

Currently we (the fire dept.) handle our own hydrant testing. The water department does any maintance needed. We take residual reading once a year and clean around them once a year. We have 585 hydrants in our city's water system. We are working toward the water department taking over the testing and us doing a clean-up once a year for training.Nothing is better than putting your hands on the hydrants in order to remember its location.

[Boots]

An addition to hammerhead338 question. To any of you or your water departments that test hydrants, How do you handle hydrants that are not owned by your city but are in your coverage area? Such as hydrants that are on industrial sites or in shopping centers. Our city now brings the water to the site or water box and everything that is beyond that point belongs to the occupant. System and hydrants are installed to city specs but ownership is the occupants. HELP needed as we set SOG's for these hydrants..THANKS

[benson911]

The water department is responsible for the hydrant maintenance but due to problems in the past we send one man with their crew each day they are out - manpower permitting. Our presence seems to motivate them to do their job well. No stuck caps since we started this program.

As far as private hydrants go, the occupant/owner is responsible for maintenance/testing just like their sprinkler system. Our Fire Marshal is very aggressive with companies who have yard hydrants. One company drained their 30,000 gallon standpipe and didn't notify us. They had a roof fire and we had no water, so our supply lay was very long. The Fire Marshal was on site within the hour and now they have a fully operational, maintenanced and tested system. The Fire Marshal found a NFPA standard or State Law (I can't remember) requiring upkeep on a yard hydrant system if it is included as part of their fire protection system.

[INDY FIRE]

Our water company is responsible for testing and maintaining our plugs.

[Hammerhead338]

Good question boots, we have several hydrants on the local university. They are taken care of by the university and we do not use them at all.
Be good and safe.

Joe
Local 3905

[Jeff801]

We perform our hydrant maint. and testing out of absolute neccessity. Our water main system has piping almost a hundred years old. We took over flow testing after numerous hydrants failed at working fires. This is the only way we can assure a reliable water supply. A basic safety issue.

We offer the hydrant maint. detail as light duty, if there are none available then it is opened up for a volunteer. It is a gravy job which is M-F 8-5, It's a great schedule during little league and football season, a great way to coach your kids.

The engine company's are given the guages and document the flow testing results. This was a gesture of good faith towards our city government and fire chief. We got a kelly day because of this gesture.

Jeff
Galveston 571

[Whip]

In my town the water dept test and maintains the hydrants. They then give reports on pressures to the chief for distribution. We are responsible for accessability. This is for those ones that they put behind guardrails and the older ones that appear to be sinking.

Keep it up and stay safe.

[Hammerhead338]

thanks for all of the replies, I though that we were the only dept that has to test hydrants, since we have been doing it we have had less problems with them.

I do have a question for all of you, what kind of grease do you put on the threads, we had a call last winter and I had a hell of a time getting the caps of the hydrant, becouse the grease looked like it was frozen on the threads. Is there a grease that should be used in cold weather states. We are using hydrant grease but it does not say that is should be used in cold weather or not.

be safe and good.

Joe
Local 3905

[Lieutenant Gonzo]

The Department of Public Works Water Division is in charge of maintaining the fire hydrants. We do put out hydrant markers for the winter so we can find them if they get buried by snow. A lot of our residents have adopted the hydrant in their neighborhoods; it's nice to see a hydrant that is completely shoveled out!

[smokeater]

We test all the hydrants here (3,000 + )every year we start in the spring and test until the water dept. falls behind on fixing mains that break from old age.

It is a easy part of ISO grading that makes a difference overall.

[Dave Grice]

We test all of the city hydrants every other year and do flow testing with simple maintenance twice a year (spring and fall). The water dept. takes care of hydrant defects and malfunctions. Every Tuesday one of our details is to check the status of hydrants that have any problems-- have they been fixed? Then a new list is made for all apparatus until the next Tuesday.