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Fire Hydrants
We drive by them every day, or we might walk by several as we go about our day; they come in different colors and designs and they stand like sentries waiting to answer the call in a fire emergency! They are, Fire Hydrants! Fire hydrants are the primary method in which the Fire Department accesses the underground water piping in the event of a fire. Fire hydrants, like all other fire protection systems, are required by law to be inspected and tested at required intervals.
Fire hydrants come in two different types, dry barrel or wet barrel:
Dry barrel fire hydrants control the water to the fire hydrant from deep in the ground. After a dry barrel fire hydrant is used and turned off, it automatically drains the hydrant below ground. This allows the hydrant to stay dry, which is ideal for colder climates where the water can freeze and crack the fire hydrant piping.
Wet barrel fire hydrants have water supplied to them at all times. Each outlet on a wet barrel fire hydrant has to be opened in order to get water from it. These types of hydrants are only used in warmer climates where freezing weather is not a concern.
All fire hydrants in the state of California (and many other states) have a common type of thread on the fire hydrant outlets. These threads are National Standard Threads. Every Fire Department within any city in the state has the same threads on their fire hoses so they can connect to any available fire hydrant. This is crucial as it allows all the different Fire Departments to provide mutual aid to neighboring cities or counties in the event of a large fire emergency (such as the recent California wild fires).
Most public fire hydrants belong to each individual water department within a geographic area. They are responsible to test, exercise and flush their fire hydrants. These fire hydrants are not only used by the Fire Department, but also the water district to flush out the underground water mains when they have elevated levels of bacteria, discoloration of water, sand or other problems in the underground piping.
Private fire hydrants are the responsibility of the property owner. Many fire hydrants that are on private property are part of a larger fire protection system for that property. By law, the property owner is required to test & maintain the fire hydrants on their property on a regular basis to ensure that they are functioning properly in the event of a fire emergency on that property.