PARKING OVER FIRE HYDRANTS

[Guest]

Hi there.Can anyone please tell me where I can find information relating to vehicles parking over fire hydrants in the road. We have a village on our patch with one hydrant in the middle of it.The hydrant is located at the side of the road (in the gutter) and everytime we drive through the village, there is a car parked over it. The hydrant is painted, posted & plated. There are no yellow lines prohibiting parking, so the 'offending' vehicles parking over the hydrant may be unaware that they are actually parked over a hydrant. I would like to find some info/reference which can be pointed out to the 'offending' vehicles, so that they can park elsewhere in future. Any comments would be appreciated.Thanks.

                                  station21@hotmail.co.uk

[Guest]

Far as I understand it is not offence to block a hydrant, however brigades do have authorty to move or make entry into a vehicle by any means available to them to effect connection to a hydrant.

[Guest]

Why not request that the hydrant be resited 2m to one side so as to place it on the pavement.

[AnthonyB]

Why not request that the hydrant be resited 2m to one side so as to place it on the pavement.

Good idea in principle - but it would probably cost 4 figures (I kid you not) so wouldn't be a justifable expenditure.

Is it not true that the US (or parts of it) have laws against parking in front of hydrants (? fire lanes)? Perhaps that should be law here

Does our use of underground hydrants rather than the US pillar type make obstruction more of a problem?

[Guest]

Why not contact the water board and obtain the fee for a fact.
Also, it would still be cheaper than replacing the pit with a pillar which would have to be placed on the pavement anyway. The pillar wouldn't conform to BS 750 1984, by the time all the hidden costs (writing and getting an agreement nationally on a new BS) are factored in it becomes unworkable.
Finally, contact the water officer at FDNY and obtain a figure for how many hydrants at any one time are out of commission due to vanadalism. Maybe the youths in the USA are better behaved than ours but in many areas ours wouldn't last the week.

[Guest]

Forgot to mention that the marking of many hydrants is so poor that on occasion even we have trouble finding them, and that was when we checked them annually.
How therefore can we blame the driver of a car for failing to notice the hydrant under their parked vehicle.

[fireftrm]

Guesty

Not just
'don't blame the driver for not realising that there is a hydrant because it is poorly marked'

but also
don't blame the driver as he/she may have no idea what that yellow plate with an H means anyway!

[John Webb]

Not an easy thing to sort out. The matter was once covered in the 'Highway Code', but the last couple of editions do not seem to have the matter mentioned - so how can drivers know/be taught it?!

Some authorities whose areas I have passed through I have seen paint the hydrant pit cover bright yellow, which also helps location. Others put an 'H' on the road with an arrow pointing towards the hydrant to assist firefighters locate hydrants. Presumeably the local authority could be approached to put a 'No Parking' box at the appropriate point to discourage obstruction; cost should not be extravagent. But if this is a village green it may be a conservation area where additional road markings are discouraged.
It may be that a local publicity campaign to neighbouring houses to educate those who may be doing the improper parking is the first choice; a hundred or two leaflets produced 'in house' by the brigade should not be very costly. Local paper publicity may also be of use.

[STATION21]

Thanks for all your comments guys. We seen to have sorted the problem (Well up to now anyway). What we have done is painted a white square approximately 1 metre square overlapping the hydrant cover. We then repainted the hydrant cover in it's usual yellow. So now it looks like a big thick white border around the yellow hydrant cover. It doesnt look an eyesore as it has weathered slightly over the last few weeks, but it really does make drivers aware that there is 'something' there and therefore park further along the road. Regarding the ideas of getting it moved onto pavements, we couldnt as there is no pavement in this part of the village.

Your comments were very much appreciated and gave us food for thought. Regards.

[WarrantManz]

Hi, something I wanna know about hydrant. Over at my side the rquirement flow for a public double pillar hydrant is 1200 l/m or 20l/sec.Now if only one arm of the hydrat is open , do i still get 1200 l/m?And does it makes  different in flow from the hydrant if a 38mm hoseline or a 64mm hoseline is connected to the hydrant?

[ian gough]

This was an offence under the 1947 FS Act.

[Allen Higginson]

I know that locally (Belfast) they decided to mark the location of the hydrants on the kerbstones so that they could be located say if it snowed.This was knocked back by the local autority for (I think) not being a recognized road marking.God,I love beauracracy!!

[scott]

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/40021--f.htm#42

Fire and rescue services act 2004,
sect 42
 (6) A person commits an offence if he uses a fire hydrant otherwise than-
(a) for the purposes of fire-fighting or for any other purposes of a fire and rescue authority, or
(b) for any purpose authorised by the water undertaker or other person to whom the hydrant belongs.

(7) A person commits an offence if he damages or obstructs a fire hydrant, otherwise than in consequence of use for the purposes mentioned in subsection (6).

[Rich]

Is the 'offending car' the same one each time?  Could the owner be contacted to point out your concerns?  

Is the car parked in a position where you could push it out of the way even with the steering lock on?  If it is and you need the hydrant urgently, break the window and move it.  (This should be the last resort though!)

I work in a city and have come across this problem on occasion.  Usually a bit of door knocking does the trick because people will generally know whose car is parked outside their house.  Once you have woken the owner a couple of times at 3am he/she may park a little more considerately!!

[Firewolf]

Whilst it is strictly an offence according to the Fire Services Act 1947 to obstruct a fire hydrant it would never be something that the Fire Authority could realistically enforce. I don't know whether the Fire and Rescue Services Act has anything to this effect either.

At the end of the day if the Brigade require access to a hydrant they will get it without to much problem even if it means moving or breaking into a vehicle.