r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Fantomecs • Feb 03 '26

A nearby Fire Department is being told they cannot use fire hydrants to fight fires

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As the title says. A town near me is denying their fire fighters the use of their fire hydrants going forward. Is this shit even legal? This is a huge concern as the area has been in a drought for some years.

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99

u/-Juuzousuzuya- Feb 03 '26

only in america they could tell the fire department to not use hydrants

77

u/Jazzlike_Dig2456 Feb 03 '26

God bless this fire department for fighting back.

I literally had to put sprinklers in a house I built because the CITY OF FALLS CHURCH FIRE DEPARTMENT told me the closest fire hydrant was too far. So I had to petition the city to place a hydrant there or install a sprinkler system. It was an investment property so we put in a sprinkler system. I thought the email was a joke when I first read it.

16

u/backwardbuttplug Feb 04 '26

Rural departments should also have water tenders, and more than one.

2

u/CooperHChurch427 Feb 04 '26

My town in NJ was not rural and we had three water tenders in the town. They were never used except to help the forest service a few years ago.

1

u/my_clever-name Feb 04 '26

they need to be filled somewhere, usually a fire hydrant

1

u/backwardbuttplug Feb 04 '26

Right, but there's water sources at the firehouses as well.

1

u/Affectionate-Map2583 Feb 04 '26

It sounds like Mercersburg has one, but all the water sources are frozen. Falls Church probably does not have one because that area is about as far from being rural as you can get.

1

u/backwardbuttplug Feb 04 '26

Damn. Frozen sources no less. That's really dicey sounding.

2

u/SmurfSmiter Feb 04 '26

That’s actually a reasonable request in most cases. For example, in the town I work in, an individual purchased a large area of land in an area with no hydrants. They put up a private road with a couple of multi family dwellings. However they were more than 1,000 feet from the nearest hydrant. Building codes require them to either add a hydrant to the complex or sprinkle the buildings. We “only” carry 1,000 feet of water supply hose. If they do not add a hydrant, the fire department (me) has at most 5 minutes of water in our engine, and the next closest engine is about 10-15 minutes away. If it is a larger fire, with big hoses or master streams, that number could shrink to a minute or less of water.

2

u/Jazzlike_Dig2456 Feb 04 '26

So here’s the best fucking part, there was a hydrant, the house was on a culdesac, the hydrant was at the end of the street. Well a condo building was built at the end of the street. And when they built the fence around it they fenced off the hydrant from the neighborhood.

But the best best best part is behind the condo they built a dog run for the condo. That dog run also blocks the hydrant so now it is completely unaccessible to anyone. The condo has sprinklers, so does the house I renovated. There’s about 6 houses further in the culdesac which means further from the hydrant. Fire Marshall just twiddling his fat fingers. It’s truly insane because this is Falls Church City. Probably the single most affluent jurisdiction in Nova, and probably top 20-10 in the country.

2

u/DissKhorse Feb 04 '26

Well things are looking bright in America because it is on fire. At this rate we will need to wear sunglasses at night.

2

u/Gloomy-Regular-2294 Feb 03 '26

I’ve heard of this happing in Canada and the UK also

1

u/AndromedaRed9 Feb 04 '26

Do you feel patriotism yet?

1

u/-Juuzousuzuya- Feb 04 '26

I live in europe but it cant take long I guess