hydrant maintenance

[BSSTG]

Greetings all,

Well, we have an issue here regarding hydrant maintenance apparently. There was a fire awhile back in which a person died and now the city is named in a lawsuit. Apparently the main complaint is that a hydrant was nonfunctional (even though the pumper had enough water I'm told). As the local fire inspector (we have no fire marshall) I was asked by the city attorney what I knew of periodic testing and so forth. I told here I didn't know of any testing that has been done personally. So now the question in my mind is that what if any maintenance testing is required? Up until 3 years ago the fire code was an older code that I couldn't even find in print. We are now on the 09 IFC. The only section that I know of that deals with this is 507.5.2.

507.5.2 Inspection, testing and maintenance. Fire hydrant systems shall be subject to periodic tests as required by the fire code official. Fire hydrant systems shall be maintained in an operative condition at all times and shall be repaired where defective. Additions, repairs, alterations and servicing shall comply with approved standards.

Our adopted codes are the 09 IFC and the 09 Life Safety Code.

input is always appreciated!

thanks

BS

 

[mtlogcabin]

507.5.3 Private fire service mains and water tanks.

Private fire service mains and water tanks shall be periodically inspected, tested and maintained in accordance with NFPA 25 at the following intervals:

1. Private fire hydrants (all types): Inspection annually and after each operation; flow test and maintenance annually

If a private hydrant has to be flow tested annually then why not a public hydrant? Seems to be inconsistancy in the requirement.

Here we flow test about 25% of the hydrants every summer. The city FD usually will hire a couple of temporary people to do this (retired fire or public works employees) Or the guys on light duty will be assigned the task

 

[cda]

Neither the fire department or public works/water dept has done any testing or periodic maintenance of the fire hydrants???

Are the public fire hydrants owned by the city or a separate water company

 

[BSSTG]

Neither the fire department or public works/water dept has done any testing or periodic maintenance of the fire hydrants???Are the public fire hydrants owned by the city or a separate water company

Greetings,

They are owned by the city.

I just got more info too. The hydrant was working at the time of the fire but was not used. Several weeks after the fire the hydrant developed a leak and was repaired. I don't know if the hydrant was out of commission for a spell or not. It may have been. Will have to talk with the chief about it. I'm unclear.

BS

 

[cda]

sounds like need to have a meeting of the minds and do a joint effort to test fire hydrants.

Our firefighters are tasked with flowing them once a year, and public works does the maintenance

 

[TheCommish]

If the issue is not covered by NFPA as private or public water systems then look to the American Water Works Association for standards on maintaining water systems

 

[Builder Bob]

If you are an ISO regulated Fire department, the fire suppression rating guide has maximum points for fire hydrants to be flowed annually and inspected bi-annually...

Hydrants: inspection and condition — ISO evaluates the frequency of fire hydrant inspection, the completeness of the inspections, and the condition of the hydrants. 3%

Hydrant flow tests

To determine the adequacy of the water-supply, ISO normally witnesses hydrant flow tests at selected locations. ISO will select the locations considering:

geographic layout of the community

topographical differences (elevation changes)

the range of needed fire flows for the buildings in the community

Hydrants

The ISO field representative will evaluate the condition of each hydrant used during the flow testing.

In essence, a fire flow evaluation is needed once a year, maintenance and a low-flow test are required bi-annually.