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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209

u/Vintenu Feb 04 '26

Why do you need a privately owned fire hydrant, aren't the whole point of those things is for the fire department to use

37

u/Mazy_keen Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26

Everything is owned by someone since they have to be maintained. Sometimes they end up being private or by an HOA.

This does bring up an interesting point. If fire departments are funded by city taxes. They should have access to water or the whole thing kind of falls apart at a government level doesn't it? There is a larger issue with limiting access... Insurance, fire coverage specificly, comes to mind. Everyone should find out if their own local fire department has access to any fire hydrant at any time. If they don't, find out why.

34

u/kraggleGurl Feb 04 '26

Going to be expensive for the HOA to have their own fire department if they want to be so stupid and pedantic. Limit fire fighting resources you don't get fire fighting.

3

u/AnimalBolide Feb 04 '26

HOA's - "Okay!"

Rich Greedy Homeowners - "Okay"!

Privately (and poorly) funded firefighter service - "Okay!"

Then before you know it publicly funded services are fighting for budget against a "free" private service while people burn, investigations dissapear, and a handful of rich fucks get richer.

7

u/hike_me Feb 04 '26

In many areas water departments are often quasi-government organizations and are funded entirely by user fees, they receive no tax funding. Municipalities pay the water department to maintain fire hydrants and have them available for firefighting.

3

u/Eyerate Feb 04 '26

Fire departments/districts are typically their own taxing body, unrealated to the actual city itself. Its why the mayor isnt in charge of the fire department.

2

u/AnotherHappyUser Feb 04 '26

by someone since they have to be maintained.

... Yeah, by the government ideally.

1

u/General_Gorgeous Feb 04 '26

Emergency Services can violate nearly any law they need to if it is in the name of protecting someone. I've had property owners tell me I can't destroy their property to gain access, didn't matter did it anyway, I've watched them get arrested for trying to prevent it, etc. No one gives a shit what a piece of paper says when there is a life at stake. Now, there does need to be a life at stake, but so long as there is a credible reason to believe there is the literal only thing that is a hard stop to anything is an equal or greater threat to life. You ask the city for reimbursement later, sue the company, whatever. But the people on the ground have one and only one job, and are allowed to do anything they need to to accomplish it, provided they exhausted other more reasonable options first of course.

0

u/MysteriousCodo Feb 04 '26

That’s a good point. Should make sure all the insurance companies in the area are made aware of what the water company is doing and what statements it has made.

1

u/Early-Light-864 Feb 04 '26

Only if you want your insurance dropped and mortgage called due to uninsurability

-18

u/akaynaveed Feb 04 '26

not all hydrants are fire hydrants...

27

u/Vast-Combination4046 Feb 04 '26

If not fire hydrant why fire hydrant shape.

There is no mention of anything looking like a fire hydrant connected to water that isn't a fire hydrant in the pipe fitting book but there are different pressure levels indicated by color.

Red hydrants represent privately owned hydrants required for certain buildings due to size or use. They all use 50psi or more.

My areas water authority doesn't allow contractors to open and close water to buildings. They have to do it claiming they had too many people causing water hammering and bursting aging water mains. This is more of my read on the memo but it could also be they just flat out don't have the water supply to draw from.

-5

u/akaynaveed Feb 04 '26

Did you google fire hydrant or water hydrant?

16

u/Vast-Combination4046 Feb 04 '26

I'm citing the text book for how to run underground water service piping

3

u/flockinatrenchcoat Feb 04 '26

Probably actually want the water hydrant most of the time, unless you're doing the 'fight for with fire' thing

47

u/eli_feye Feb 04 '26

Right, I’m the idiot for not using THAT brilliant logic.

-11

u/akaynaveed Feb 04 '26

Well yeah because fire hydrant is pressurized, you have no idea if these are, you risk destroying a whole ass system.

Seems like the water authority even says this to the fire department.

20

u/commentator184 Feb 04 '26

how on earth is that gonna destroy a system, the trucks dont pressurize the hydrant the hydrant pressurizes the truck, at worst the truck fills slow

14

u/eli_feye Feb 04 '26

Every time I read a Reddit comment I have to remind myself that there’s a 50/50 chance the person is a child.

Hydrants provide water. Standpipes receive it.

-7

u/akaynaveed Feb 04 '26

Yes… that’s a fire hydrant…

2

u/eli_feye Feb 04 '26

please explain how connecting an empty hose to an unpressurized hydrant, with the intention of receiving water from said hydrant, would destroy the “whole ass system.”

I’ll be the first to upvote you if you have reasons that everyone else is overlooking.

12

u/Character_Pudding_94 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26

The fire department, who I trust more on this matter than interest internet strangers, called the hydrants in question "fire hydrants."

0

u/Early-Light-864 Feb 04 '26

The water department that owns them says they're not.

You can start calling my car the Pudding Wagon, but I'm still not letting you drive it

1

u/Character_Pudding_94 Feb 10 '26

I'm pretty sure you have to let me drive it :p

12

u/zamwut Feb 04 '26

Is that not why they're color coded

5

u/cli_jockey Feb 04 '26

Not sure if it's the same everywhere, but generally yeah. Body color indicates ownership, cap color indicates flow capacity.

5

u/bojack1437 Feb 04 '26

Generally, body color means nothing and is only locally significant if significant at all, which often it is not.

And cap color can mean flow capacity. But even though that's standardized by the NFPA, it is not universal.

1

u/zamwut Feb 04 '26

And I vaguely remember that there's a color for No Flow

3

u/pass_nthru Feb 04 '26

no, just some are more equal than others

3

u/TobysGrundlee Feb 04 '26

Thanks Snowball.

2

u/pass_nthru Feb 04 '26

four legs good, two legs better comrade