Hydrants in the street

[Galeon]

Who is responsible for testing the hydrants in the public highway , I used to see the Brigade at it , and seem to remember the Water board doing them as well  ?

[Benzerari]

Who is responsible for testing the hydrants in the public highway , I used to see the Brigade at it , and seem to remember the Water board doing them as well  ?

I haven't got a clue, what are you talking about Gal?

[Galeon]

water hydrants , where the a water supply is avaliable , ie to connect a hose if water is running low on a fire engine etc etc excuse my terminology for all you brigade boys i apologise in advance.

[kurnal]

The Fire and Rescue service has a legal responsibility to secure adequate water supplies for firefighting purposes, and have powers in this respect under the Fire and Rescue Services Act in England and Wales.

This includes the duty to install fire hydrants on public mains and to maintainthese at their expense, and the power to access and use water in ponds and swimming pools for firefighting- subject to payments for compensation ets.

The water main on which the hydarnts are installed is the responsibility of the Water supply company, the hydrant is the property of the fire service. To maintain their water quality obligations, the water companies impose requirements on the fire service for regular tests and maintenance of hydrants. If the fire service fall foul of this then the water company may carry out the tests and maintenance themselves and charge it to the fire service.

Private water mains- eg on industrial sites are soley the responsibility of the owner of the main.

Under the latest review of the building Regulations it was decided that it was not fair to expect the public purse to pay for fire Hydrants on new developments and the Approved Document B5 now requires the developer to pay for new fire hydrants if there is not one within 90m of the fire service access point to the new building.

Now the developer has to pay, the fire service require many more hydrants than they ever used to when they had to foot the bill.

[Tom Sutton]

This includes the duty to install fire hydrants on public mains and to maintain these at their expense, and the power to access and use water in ponds and swimming pools for fire fighting- subject to payments for compensation etc.

We had a large fire Sefton Hall and had to use Lord Sefton's lake. After the fire was out we set up a water relay and filled the lake at considerable cost, he then insisted we replace the fish. Gratitude is short lived.

[John Webb]

The way in which F&RSs test hydrants does seem to vary. Some use fire crews, others have 'hydrant technicians' or similar who spend their 9-5 jobs doing nothing else but hydrant inspection, testing and replacing indicator plates as necessary. The Herts F&RS used to (and may still do) test private hydrants on a fee-paying basis.
They have taken to using adhesive signs on the public highway, attached to lamp-posts or the like rather than metal signs on concrete posts but I note a couple of the new ones in my area have already suffered vandalism.

[Benzerari]

water hydrants , where the a water supply is avaliable , ie to connect a hose if water is running low on a fire engine etc etc excuse my terminology for all you brigade boys i apologise in advance.

No worry mate, we are all under the same human umbrella...no one knows... etc

[messy]

Is also worth remembering that cash strapped fire services have to pay for repairs to hydrants.

Some years back, Thames Water were under pressure (excuse the pun) by politicians to cut down on water leaks. One of their means of doing so was to reinspect every hydrant and repair every fault, even (like a leaky spindle) it didn't effect firefighting. Thames water reached their leakage targets whilst the LFB picked up the tab.

The Herts F&RS used to (and may still do) test private hydrants on a fee-paying basis.
.

It was round the same time, I attended a liaison meeting with Herts FRS and discovered that they were not testing any hydrants as their repair budget has been used up. Therefore it was decided, why bother finding faults if we can't fix them?

The LFB also toyed with the idea of limiting hydrant testing by establishing 'key hydrants' in certain geographical positions, which would be maintained and serviced. Other less significant hydrants would no longer be serviced - say as those in housing estates- as it was argued that most house jobs could be dealt with by the capacity of 2 - 4 pumping appliances.

So far, the recommendations of this little known report have stayed gathering dust. But with the fashion of employing senior managers from outside the fire service to run the show, it's only a matter of time before the accountants/managers dig this idea out and perhaps run with it.

[kurnal]

The hydrants in the vicinity of the Penhallow fire were reported to be silted up. They were also subject to maintenance by a third party contractor on behalf of the fire service.

We used to have to test and clean every hydrant every year and check and replace  the marker plates.

That was in the days when the availability of firefighting water supplies and knowledge of where the hydrants are was  considered an important part of the firefighters job.  It doesn't seem to be flavour of the month at the moment. But the wheel will turn full circle.

[colin todd]

TW< in these days of equality and diversity fish are people too, and their presence in the lake is surely part of the rich tapestry of diversity that makes this country what it is today? Anyhow, His lordship should have had a sump and a strainer to help the nice operational people?

[Tom Sutton]

CT I stand admonished but you see I am not very PC.

[drifty]

One of the reasons why frs might not be undertaking hydrant inspections is that they will not have the staff qualified in the new roads and streetworks act 1991 which requires anyone lifting a cover up on a public highway to be streetworks trained and the site being signed to the required standard. If you take the cost of training every firefighter employed by the brigade to that standard and the re-qualification training that would also have to be carried out and the extra cost of providing all the road signs required and also the issue of where do you put the signs and cones on already short of space appliances you can see it would make sence to outsource hydrant testing to either an outside contractor i.e. the water undertaker or just to train a few people in a non uniformed role and supply them with the equiptment required to carry out the testing.

The streetworks act can cause a lot of problems for a frs in that under the act the only time a firefighter can open a hydrant pit without the streetworks qualification and without the proper signs etc is when that hydrant is going to be used on a nearby fire, If there is no fire and the crew are opening the hydrant for example just to fill the tank on the appliance up there is a possability that a passing streetworks enforcement officer could take the crew of the appliance and the frs to court for a breech of the act.