Closest hydrant to my house is several miles away.
Several miles? You must live outside of any city limits. There’s a hydrant every 6 houses in my neighborhood. Why they had to put it in my front lawn instead of in the parking strip on the other side of the sidewalk I don’t understand. It gives the kids something to play on though.
So what do you do if your house catches fire? Just watch it burn? I can’t imagine the water source at your house to be enough to extinguish any but the smallest of fires.
There’s a fire hydrant right across the street from my house.
If my house catches on fire it’s a goner; not because of lack of a hydrant but simply because the volunteer fire department makes the Three Stooges look like pretty level headed guys.
I’ve got a hydrant two houses down on both sides so luckily no restrictions in front of my house. The homeowner is required to keep the thing clear too such as digging it out in the winter. For the areas without hydrants in the rural areas, they use a tanker truck for the water source. We’re buying a new truck this year to replace a 20 year old one with a price upwards of $700K so they are a little pricey.
Several miles? You must live outside of any city limits.
I was at a place where there was a barn fire once and I saw this in action.
The way that they supply water in the rural areas is this.
Your local volunteer fire department arrives and requests tankers from the nearest communities.
While those tankers are en route the local FD uses their tanker (s) to fight the fire and sets up a portable tank…like a portable pool. The tankers from the neighboring communities pull up and dump their load into the pool and then head off to refill and a nearby pond/lake or river. At this refill site a neighboring community will set up their pumper to refill the tankers.
There may be 4-6 departments…all doing their part on a big fire.
Your local FD uses the pool to feed their pumper and sometimes they will have another FD set up their pool and pumper.
Around our community there are at least a half dozen of these refill areas set up just in our township. Every community will have these refill stations and I’m sure the neighboring firefighters know where all of our refill sites are, and ours knows the neighbors sites.
I’m also pretty sure that they hold the right to also drain any nearby swimming pools to fight the fire, though I think that they also come back out and refill your pool as a gesture of thanks.
The fire that I was at was an old barn full of hay and you wouldn’t believe at how efficient they did and around here they practice quite often.
I can honestly say I’ve never really thought much about fire control in any house I’ve owned or rented, probably because one condition of a house for me is that it has to be on city water and sewer–no wells or septic systems.
I have an acquaintance who had a garage fire that started from a leaky fuel line on his car. I imagine that if he hadn’t lived in the city the damage to his house would have been much greater.
While the fire hydrant situation is beyond excusing there is a need for more insight into the parking situation in many areas. There was a television program about parking violators, tickets, impound lots, etc not long ago and very often the the laws were quite petty and vindictive, serving no purpose other than running up huge fines and penalties for people who could ill afford to pay but unable to find a safe and legal place to park their car.
Fire lanes in front of commercial buildings also need to be kept clear but there are always drivers who can’t be bothered to use legitimate parking spaces, instead using fire lanes. The most common offenders I see are driving luxury full-sized SUVs or full-sized trucks.
15,000 here would be a fair sized city and in South Dakota would be in the top five.
Not an SUV or truck but my 59 Pontiac was 11 years old when I got towed out of a fire lane at school. It was short term parking while you dropped off or picked up or went to talk to your girl friend. But the city started clamping down. I managed to ride down in the tow truck though, pay my $10 fee and back on the road again. My main concern was that they’d scratch my car. Later in life I gained empathy for the administrator that had to clear fire lanes against the ire of staff and visitors.
I recall a house that burned to the ground a few miles east of me about 20 years ago. Tanker trucks from several towns and the county were called in to fight the fire. Only after they went to “save the out buildings and let the house burn” mode did they discover that there was a covered swimming pool in the back yard that would have given them an extra 15-20,000 gallons. Duh!
My place was annexed by a small town about 15 years ago. Until then we had a dirt street and no fire hydrants. Now the nearest hydrant is about 400’ away, thru the side yard of the house across the paved street. I wonder if the volunteer fire department would figure that out if I had a fire. Yeah, maybe
The communities around me, here in SE Wisconsin, seem to be on the ball.
But don’t call the DNR if the forest starts on fire. I was trying to help a brush fire truck put out a fire one year and we ran out of water in their approx 50 gallon tank. They called in the pumper truck and I thought that they’d have it under control real quick. We were frantically trying to beat the fire out with rakes and brooms.
Turned out that they only had a reel of 1 1/2 inch hose and when they went to start the pump…no one could find the rope. That’s right, it was about 1990 and they still relied on the old rope wound around the flywheel. They looked under the seat…nope not there!!!
Talk about a moment from the keystone cops.
Finally a local Fire department came to the scene…hooked up a hose and two firemen rode the top of their fire truck as they drove in advance of the fire. They had it out in ten minutes.
An abandoned, dilapidated house burned down about 5 or 6 years ago here and it had been raining for 3 days straight. The fire hydrant was on the street right by the house. The ground was a quaqmire.
So the volunteer firefighter brings the tanker over instead of the pumper and bogs it down to the axles in the mud; and the tanker had no hoses on board. This led to getting the pumper and more guys to free the tanker up with all of them apparently forgetting the hydrant was right there.
By the time they yanked the tanker out of the muck the house was burnt to the ground.
It’s strongly suspected that the new owner of the property next door (a city councilman) was also the owner of the gutted house property and needed this thing gone so arson was suspected.
Three days of rain on a ramshackle house grown up with weeds, 1 A.M. in the morning, no electrical lines in sight for the last 40 years, and the place just spontaneously combusted…
15,000 here would be a fair sized city and in South Dakota would be in the top five
I live in the Seattle-Tacoma metro area and like it here because of the small-town feel and atmosphere. I grew up in the Los Angeles Metro area. When I lived there the urban area around/including LA was 14 million. 15,000 people? That’s not even a baseball game.
From the time I was 9 I spent my summers on a family farm in Eastern Montana, 14 miles of gravel road to the nearest town, population 145. Talk about a schizophrenic upbringing.
Between the car-crazy culture of SoCal and the necessity of needing to know how to drive to run errands and work on the farm I learned how to drive when I was 10.
I’ll have to admit you have me looking at fire hydrants now and trying to determine the reasoning for where the 4" plug is aimed at. On the four lane city highway, they all seem to point toward the road and not the buildings. The some point to the buildings. Some along the highway are right in the center of the ditches which in the winter are going to covered with 10 feet of snow from the plows.
I suspect it is as mentioned that the truck would park in the road and the 4" hose would go directly to the truck. Then the 2" hoses would come from the truck to wherever the fire was. Otherwise in 90% of the cases the hose would have to do a 180 to get to the fire. So in that sense, it would not just be to have a place for the hose but also a place to park the pumper truck.
I live in a city of 60,000 in eastern Indiana and we do have a professional fire department. However, sometimes they have some funny experiences. My fsther-in-law bought me a scanner for Christmas one year so I could listen to police and fire calls. ,At the time we lived less than half a mile from a fire station and we could hear the trucks leave the station. One night, about 10:00 p.m. we heard the trucks leave the station. The trucks didn’t go very far before the sirens stopped. I turned on the scanner and found out the firemen were lost. A fire had been reported at a,mobile home. The firemen arrived at the only mobile home they knww, about on.the street, but there was,no fire there and none had been reported. A couple of radio calls,went back and forth to the dispatcher who finally suggested there was a,mobile home further out the road and outside,the city limits. The trucks took off again with the sirens wailing… When they arrived at the second mobile home, they found the occupant outside grilling hamburgers for a late night snack. Apparently his grill had flared up and someone thoughf if was a fire and called it in.
Funniest fire call I ever heard on the scanner was a first alarm that elevated to a second alarm for a dog house. That’s how the call went out. Turns out a dog house up against a two story home caught fire when a heating pad shorted out. By the time the fire department arrived the entire back of the home was fully engulfed in flames.
I live where fire trucks, ambulances, and police vehicles frequently go by on the road behind my house. It is interesting how not only can I tell which one or more type vehicles is approaching by the sound of the siren/s but when they return to the barn the engines of each have a distinct sound, especially the fire trucks. At night, even police cars without siren have a deeper, more throaty engine sound, especially if idling.
My daughter, learning to drive, asked about the fire truck and why it seemed to go so slowly if it was in such a hurry.
So, that started the instructional discussion about different vehicles driveability related to size and weight.
We took the Expedition home and got in the Escape. She has driven both and noticed how they drive differently but now she really noticed since that’s what we were demonstrating.
I told her how the fire truck is just a big truck with a loaded water tank on board as well. This made loads of sense and she stated…’‘so, he IS in a hurry and he’s going as fast as he can.’’
’‘Yes, and the lights and siren give him free passage to get there asap.’’ I added.
she added what she’s learned…’‘so we get the hell outta the way and he gets there in the shortest time humanly possible.’’
’‘Yep , BUT…with all those flashing lights going…how do you know if he has a turn signal on ?’’
’‘Hmmm.’’
’‘That’s why we pull over even when we’re on the other side of this four lane road…he may want to turn right here…so you watch for sighns like , which lane is he in ? if he’s getting in the turning lane…is he going around other cars or is he turning ? keep an eye on the clues.’’
As far as the fire hose THROUGH the windows ( instead of just under the car ) is concerned.
I honestly think they do that on purpose to make a point !
They can’t come and simply move their car ! ! and when they finally get to take it they have a heavy price to pay in addition to the citation !
Now THAT makse a point
As far as the fire hose THROUGH the windows ( instead of just under the car ) is concerned.
I honestly think they do that on purpose to make a point !
Several reasons for not under the car.
. When expanded there may not be enough clearance.
. The car could have just stopped there and the exhaust (especially the catalytic converter) is very very hot.
. Could cause a kink in the hose.
. Could take too much time.
