THIS LOVELY, COLOR-COORDINATED, MINT GREEN AND SILVER FIRE HYDRANT located just outside of Tiger Woods’ home isn’t the only hydrant making news this week.
* * *
The Houston (Texas) Chronicle is reporting this morning that:
Houston city workers mistakenly thought a fake fire hydrant was the real thing, painted it blue and gave it a serial number. Brian Smith bought the surplus fire hydrant at a garage sale three years ago, painted it red and plopped it next to his palm trees in his yard. His girlfriend, Debbie Vogelsang said that she was concerned that painting the old hydrant in the city’s colors could cause dangerous confusion during a fire.
But a Houston maintenance worker last week repainted it yellow and blue and added a serial number.
Executive Assistant Fire Chief Rick Flanagan says the city will remove the serial number and a reflector wrongly indicating the fire hydrant was the real thing.
Firegeezer wonders if the maintenance man’s job description calls for him to test the hydrants before he does any maintenance on them?
* * *
Two weeks ago a Connecticut Power & Light truck was positioning to repair a utility pole when it brushed/struck a fire hydrant. The slight movement of the hydrant created a crack in the 16-inch main just below and a vigorous underground leak started up. As the truck was sitting there, the ground was rapidly being undermined right beneath it. This video report from WTNH-TV picks up the story from here:
* * *
Hydrants and sinkholes were common companions last month. Just a week prior to the power company’s misadventure, a woman driving through East Hartford has to swerve to avoid hitting a deer. Unfortunately, her swerve sent her right over a fire hydrant and she also broke the underlying water main sending up a geyser that caught the neighborhood’s attention.
NBC
The driver was unable to get out of her car due to the force of the water so she called 9-1-1 for help. When the FD arrived, they realized that she was trapped in the car and began a 5-minute extrication. Within seconds after removing her, the sinkhole opened up and swallowed the just-vacated car. A local NBC news videographer caught the conclusion of the event:
