A NEW YORK ARTIST IS VISITING DETROIT, MICHIGAN, THIS WEEK with the purpose of creating an imaginative street sculpture using an abandoned house, a fire hydrant, and a fire hose.
WJBK image
His ultmate aim is to direct public attention to his proposed project to salvage building materials instead of just tearing them down and discarding them. Gregory Holm explains all about it in this video report from WJBK-TV:
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.
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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?
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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:
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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:
Updated. Scroll down.
CHAMPION GOLFER TIGER WOODS WAS INJURED EARLY THIS MORNING at his home in Orlando, Florida, when his SUV that he was driving struck a fire hydrant and then careened into a tree. The accident took place around 2:25 am, but the Floriday Highway Patrol did not release the information until 2 pm this afternoon.
The FHP says:
Woods, 33, had pulled out of the driveway at his residence in the 6000 block of Deacon Circle. Woods was driving in a 2009 Cadillac SUV. ”As he began to drive on Deacon Circle, (Woods’) struck a fire hydrant,” FHP reported. The front of Wood’s vehicle “then struck a tree” located at a neighboring property.
They are also reporting the crash remains under investigation and that charges are pending. The FHP report indicates alcohol was not a factor in the crash. It also indicates “unknown” on whether a seat belt was used. The airbags in Woods’ Cadillac Escalade did not deploy, which means the vehicle was traveling under 33 mph, according to FHP.
Orange County Fire Rescue received the call for aid at 2:28 a.m. Woods was transported from his Windermere-area neighborhood by the hospital’s own ambulance.
It is also being reported that Woods was treated for facial lacerations and then released from Health Central Hospital in Ocoee. The hospital is expected to issue a press release at 4 pm this afternoon.
WESH-TV Ch. 2 Orlando has this early video report:
Update, 4 pm:
A statement from Woods’ publicist and Health Central Hospital called the accident “minor” and said Woods was “admitted, treated and released today in good condition.” Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn told CNN that local police arrived within two minutes of being notified. The golfer was taken to Health Central Hospital, where he was treated for facial lacerations and released, Bruhn said.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, IS NOT BEING CREDITED lately as having a well-functioning city government. Their finances are a mess and the only solution they seem to be able to come up with is to lay off more and more city workers.
It looks like they’ve laid off one worker too many in the water department, though, because they can’t seem to get anybody to come out and shut off a fire hydrant that has been running for more than a month. WTXF-TV Ch. 29 reported on it yesterday:
THE CITY OF OCONOMOWOC, WISCONSIN, (the only place in America where every 2nd letter is an “o”) needs to have its 900 fire hydrants re-painted. And like a good, responsible city they choose to hire somebody to do it, instead of ordering their firefighters to leave their checker games and go out and paint the hydrants themselves.
With the slack economy, they expected several bids on the job from firms needing work. They got them alright, but most of the companies bidding were trying to turn their own economy around in one bid.
One construction company bid $549 per hydrant. They were underbid by another firm who offered to do it for $465 per hydrant.
Fortunately for the good folks of Oconomowoc they have an “experienced hydrant painter” who stepped in with a bid to paint them for $95 each.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel fills us in on the STORY.
IN SANTA MARIA, CALIFORNIA, out there where they have wet-barrel hydrants, a school bus hit one of them yesterday.
Nothing really newsworthy there, but it’s always fun to watch the big water. KCOY Channel 12 brings us today’s video:
METAL THIEVES HAVE BEEN vandalizing fire hydrants nationwide in brazen attempts to steal brass parts for resale. But in Long Beach, Californina, they have taken it a step farther. In the past month, seven complete fire hydrants have been stolen from city streets.
The Long Beach Press-Telegram reports:
The 60- to 80-pound hydrants made from brass were shut off with a special tool, unbolted and removed from their foundations, according to an advisory from Ryan Alsop of the Long Beach Water Department.
Reinstalling the hydrants would cost the city $1,500 to $1,800, Alsop said in an e-mail.
Each hydrant was taken from the northwest section of the city, where nearly 100 manhole covers have been stolen since March.
You can read the full story HERE.
DON’T ASK THE PUBLIC WORKS CREW IN SAN DIEGO. An errant automobile struck a wet-barrel hydrant and knocked it off its base Wednesday night.
[photopress:sandiegohydrant.jpg,full,centered]
KGTV
The repair crews that were sent to shut off the water and secure the break couldn’t find any valves or gates to isolate the affected main for 5 hours. The water just kept on coming and coming, eventually spilling over 4 million gallons across the neighborhood before they finally got it shut down.
KGTV Ch. 10 has the video:
SIBERIA IS NOT KNOWN FOR HEAT WAVES. In fact, they have so little hot weather that air conditioning is unheard of.
So when an unusually hot day struck the city of Omsk yesterday, the apartment dwellers had all their windows open for ventilation. Unfortunately for some of them, when a careless driver clonked into a fire hydrant they got an unexpected housecleaning.
GARY, INDIANA, HAS LONG AGO SLIPPED INTO AN ECONOMIC ABYSS. Constantly struggling to fund their basic governmental services, the City Council is considering two new ordinances to squeeze the citizen’s wallets even further.
One measure that will be voted on next month proposes charging everybody who pays a water bill an additional $2.64 a month for fire hydrant rental.
[photopress:gary_hydrant.gif,full,centered]
Terry L. Atherton, an Indiana American Water operations manager, said residential customers can expect to see the increase on their bill two or three months after the ordinance is passed. Customers with larger meters (businesses) can expect a bigger increase, he said.
The City Controller expects to raise $1.1 million a year by renting out their fire hydrants. This comes on top of an 85% increase of homeowners’ sewer bills.
The other proposed ordinance would allow the Gary Fire Department to charge for services rendered at the scene of an accident other than ambulance service.
[photopress:gary.jpg,full,centered]
GFD photo
Half of the money collected from those services would go into a fund to support the Gary Fire Department. The rest would be considered “miscellaneous revenue.”
The Gary Post-Tribune has the STORY.
Gary Fire Department WEBSITE.
THIS MUST BE THE CHAMPION OF ALL FIRE HYDRANTS. It’s located in Hong Kong and it looks like it has at least a 12-inch barrel on it.
[photopress:huge_hydrant_hong_kong_steve_webel.jpg,full,centered]
photo by Steve Webel
By the way, this one doesn’t count….it’s just a sculpture (in Columbia, South Carolina) :
[photopress:huge_hydrant_sculpture_columbia_sc.jpg,full,centered]
(What did you think I meant?)
TOPEKA, KANSAS, HAS TAKEN A NEW TACK ON FIRE HYDRANT problems. Whereas Washington, D. C. and Tampa, Florida, among others, have been showing broken hydrants as being in service, the Topeka Water Department has been listing hydrants as broken when they are really operational.
[photopress:topeka.jpg,full,centered]
When television station Channel 49 requested a print-out of the city’s 5,000 hydrants and their status, they found the records were completely unreliable. One hydrant that has been out of service since June has actually been replaced with a new one, but their bureaucrats have trouble recording things like that. When asked why the records were not being maintained, none of the water officials could give a reason.
Read the full story HERE.
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.
[photopress:water_pipe.jpg,full,alignleft]
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.
EARLIER THIS WEEK WE REPORTED HERE that only 35% of the fire hydrants in Tampa were getting inspected within the two-year time frame that is specified.
This past Tuesday neighboring Hillsborough County had a house fire and the steamer cap on the nearest hydrant was frozen shut, necessitating a 900-ft. lay over to the next block. Later inspection disclosed that the cap had jammed because it lacked lubrication. Now here’s the kicker: That hydrant was recorded as having been inspected less than two months ago.
Firegeezer thinks that now they will have to presume that none of the hydrants have been maintained.
The full story is in the St. Petersburg Times HERE.
THE TAMPA (FLORIDA) WATER DEPARTMENT is required to inspect fire hydrants at least bi-annually. But they admit that only 35% of the hydrants are checked that frequently. A state law requires annual inspections, but they miss that mark 86% of the time.
The Tampa Tribune has a lengthy report HERE.
Channel 8 has the VIDEO.
I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THIS….just never got the chance. But I know it’s happened quite a bit over the years.
Did you ever catch a hydrant like this? If so, tell us about it in the Comments. (I love the little pile of broken glass under the window.)
[photopress:catch_the_hydrant.jpg,full,centered]
HERE’S A HINT: HE WAS SECOND ONLY to Thomas Edison in the number of patents he personally held.
Need another clue? Holly’s Fire Protection and Water System – an integrated system designed to deliver water under a steady pressure for public safety – brought him worldwide fame in 1863. The system was widely adapted throughout the United States and Canada, and established the standard upon which all current, water distribution systems as based.
[photopress:holly_pump.jpg,full,centered]
Birdsill Holly
Getting close……Here’s where we rely on him: In 1869, Holly was issued a patent, number 94749, for an “improved fire hydrant”. He is the father of today’s modern fire hydrant.
Michael Daisy, freelance writer and history buff, wrote a good, concise article on Holly’s life and inventiveness. It is posted HERE on Inventorspot.com and makes for some fine Sunday reading.
Some Holly hydrants
[photopress:Holly___Selvey_collection.jpg,full,centered][photopress:Holly___Anderson_collection.jpg,full,centered][photopress:Holly___Masminster_collection.jpg,full,centered]
Selvey, Anderson and Masminster collections
AN OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA MAN who was walking with his wife to a neighborhood restaurant was killed when a car struck a nearby fire hydrant and it propelled into him.
The Oakland Tribune reports that:
When the SUV smashed into the hydrant, the impact broke the hydrant from the ground and launched it at a 45-degree angle toward Hernandez, who was about 10 feet away walking northbound on same side of the street. Police are not sure if the hydrant might have skipped off the pavement before hitting 5-foot-6 Hernandez in the back of his head.
“He was walking a bit ahead of his wife and then, all of a sudden, he is in the line of fire,” Bermudez said.
After hitting Hernandez, the hydrant still had enough velocity to ricochet through a fence before stopping.
The police report that if he had been one step ahead, or one step behind, it would have missed him.
Read the full story HERE.
Note: I believe that Oakland has wet-barrel hydrants, which would explain the propulsion effect. – Firegeezer.
FOLLOWING THE FIRE AT THE Georgetown Public Library last month, it was disclosed that the two hydrants closest to the building were out of order. [photopress:0743013945_gtown.jpg,thumb,alignleft]The FD then reported that they have been spot-checking the hydrants around the city for two years and found that 10% of them are out of service.
The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority disputed the claim, but said that they would speed up repairs. Now the Chief says that the 10% represents the number that are completely 10/7 and another 15% are in urgent need of repair.
Firegeezer says: This is so typical of what is going on in the large cities these days. The politicians use the city agencies as patronage dumping grounds and hold nobody accountable for their failures. The only things that ever get fixed are the things that are clearly visible to the voters. Once again, it’s a case of putting their political careers ahead of what is good for the citizens.
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