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Just Throw Dirt On It

7 comments

IN BELFAIR, WASHINGTON, THE LOCAL WATER DISTRICT  is in a snit because the Belfair Fire Department doesn’t pay for the water it uses.  So the water district has padlocked all the fire hydrants and refuses to give the FD a key.  In fact, they didn’t even inform the FD that they were doing it.

The Belfair Water District says it loses a million gallons of water a year to water thieves and contractors, etc., and they are just trying to control the water usage.  But when Fire Chief Beau Bakken asked them for a key, they wouldn’t give them one.  Even the hydrant in front of the firehouse is locked.

Even the hydrant in front of the firehouse is locked.

 Chief Bakken said, “We immediately called the Belfair Water District and asked for a key. And we were refused by the water manager to get a key, and were just told that, ‘Hey, in the event of a fire, just cut these locks if you need to get into the fire hydrants.”‘

Despite their claim of water thievery, the dispute goes back more than two years when the water district asked the FD to pay for any water they use in training exercises and the fire department naturally refused.  Belfair Water District Manager Dave Tipton told tv station KOMO,  ”They will not pay for the water. We’ve asked them for 2½ years. They refuse to pay us for any water, for anything.”  When asked about the delay in firefighting caused by the need to cut the lock off the hydrant first, Tipton responded that he doesn’t think locking fire hydrants will have any direct effect on firefighting.

The fire chief is taking the actions of the water district to the county prosecutor to see if he can get any relief.  KOMO-TV ran this video report that includes an interview with one of the most muddle-brained bureaucrats you’ll ever come across:

Hat tip:  Larry D.

Posted by on August 5, 2010 • Filed under: Fire Rescue Topics, Fire-ology, hydrants, Videos
  • http://www.rmesfire.org Jay911

    I would “need” to use the hydrant every time the truck went out. Went to a car fire? Fill up the booster tank. Put out a cigarette in a planter? Top 'er up. Sloshed some water out of the overflow going around the corner doing driver training? Bring me the bolt cutters!

  • mr618

    And of course, by Murphy's Law, the next major fire will be at the Water District HQ, and the FD won't be able to cut the lock for some reason, so the Water District sues the FD. Washington is becoming as much a “cereal state” as California… a land of nuts and flakes.

  • Brady

    I thought I'd seen it all when I read that a New Jersey Mayor was no longer buying Toilet paper for Public buildings. This Water Dept manager just took the lead. Suffice it to say there would be no locks on the hydrant near my house. That manager would have to really increase his budget for locks. They would be removed whenever seen

  • Jrgenberg1

    How is it not a violation of fire code for FD to not have locks? Like Jay911 said I'd find a reason to have to cut locks all over town

  • freeskier

    I just wonder, that someone builds a device you can put over a hydrant to lock it!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=551497870 Dustin Swartz

    Oh ya it would be funny as hell. EMS run. I need to use water. Every alarm run I need to hook up. HAHAHAHA the one in front of the station would be cut every shift. You know tanks get low and all. They would be wasting thousands of dollars on these locks.

  • Dalmatian90

    I came across this googling something else this morning:

    http://www.seattle.gov/util/About_SPU/News/Curr…

    It's a Washington state ruling that water system users can't pay for fire hydrants, because that's a general government function and should be paid by general government taxes…not water bills.

    I don't know if that extends to water usage and building/maintaining a system sufficiently large to provide fire-protection flows, although it seems to me that's a very short logical journey.

    That water district may not be being asses…their lawyers may be looking at this going, “We don't think we're legally allowed to give you the water anymore…”