THE ONTARIO ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS has teamed up with an association of water-main engineers to warn the public of the dangers being created by old water pipes.  Many of the mains are leaking as much as 20% to 40% of their water and the corrosion of the older pipes has restricted their flow to the point where sprinkler systems cannot work effectively.

Many hydrants are thus delivering a reduced fire flow, yet the solution proposed by many municipalities is just to color-code the hydrants.

The Toronto Star has the ARTICLE.

Firegeezer points out that in Oct. 1973 the city of Chelsea, Massachusetts had a conflagration that destroyed 1/4 of the city’s industries and wiped out most of the downtown.  More than 1,000 firefighters from 3 states were needed to finally stop the blaze.  Investigation later disclosed that the major cause of the fire growing so large was because all the town’s water mains were so corroded that they has as little as 1 inch effective diameter interior opening.  In other words, no fire flow at all.

This is typical because politicians rarely spend money on “hidden” problems.  They like the visual things where they can get their picture taken.  We’re seeing a modern-day scenario playing out in Washington, D.C. with their broken fire hydrants.

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