It's That Time Of Year To Flush Fire Hydrants
This is the time of year when you may have noticed your local fire department flowing water from fire hydrants.
We wanted to know more about these test so we stopped by the Pinebluff Fire Department this week to learn more about it.
These hydrant test actually have several important purposes.
Testing all the hydrant caps to ensure they turn freely and will work properly in times of an emergency.
Testing the valve that actually turns the water on and off.
To turn the water on long enough to flush the system and ensure everything works properly
Firefighters have the ability to test the flow rate to verify the hydrants delivery rate per minute.
This testing is also part of maintaining the departments certification level.
Fire Hydrants are each rated based on the gallons per minute that they can deliver. Typically you will see a shiny ring attached to the side of a hydrant that is either blue, green, orange, or red. Each color represents a different flow rate per minute allowing firefighters to instantly know what the capacity is for a given hydrant.
Fire hydrants are but one way firefighters here are able to obtain water to fight a fire. In cases further out of town firefighters often have to get creative and draw water from lakes and even small ponds. Many of these are even pre-plotted so firefights know where the closest water sources are.
If you see crews out testing hydrants where you live please use caution when driving past the area. The job that they are doing is important.
05/25/24
Billy Marts
(Picture courtesy Pinebluff Fire & Rescue)
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