Fire Hydrants

Introduction

One piece of equipment that firefighters often take for granted is the fire hydrant. It is as vital to the operations as any other piece of equipment! However, the fire hydrant is often overlooked because it's not carried on the apparatus like our other tools (Thomson 23). The two principle types of hydrants are the dry barrel fire hydrant and the wet barrel fire hydrant. The wet barrel hydrant is used exclusively in milder climates, where there is no chance of it freezing. The dry barrel hydrant is used in virtually all other locations. Both hydrants have been given a prepared set of standards by the American Water Works Association (Thomson 23).

A fire hydrant, also called fire plug, is basically an active measure of fire protection. It is also a source of water supplied to majority of the rural, suburban and urban areas (Thomson 23). Community water service assists in extinguishing a fire by allowing firefighters to tap into their water supply. It is asserted that Birdsill Holly, in 1869, has invented this tool, although many other patents for fire hydrants have preceded his design. Several former designs were created and marketed effectively. There were various wooden cased designs which existed in the market until the well known cast iron hydrant started to develop (Thomson 23). Underground fire hydrants, which are common in Asia and Europe, have existed since the 18th century, even though the traces of the first above ground hydrant go back to 1803 (Thomson 23).

Discussion

History

Prior to the systems of water distribution, water was only available from two different sources for the purpose of fighting fire. First was natural resource like rivers, lakes, and ponds whereas second source included barrels or cisterns which were kept filled with water. The foremost systems for water distribution were built in cities such as Boston and London during the seventeenth century (Bernard 11). Whenever water was required for the purpose of fighting fires, a hole was bored through the pipe wall, and a hole was dug to expose the wooden pipe. Due to the low pressure in these pipes water was first collected just around the pipe and then it was collected up through a hose connected to a hand pump or by buckets (Bernard 11). Once the fire was fought, a tapered piece of wood was plugged with the hole in the pipe. These plugs were then buried and their locations were marked in case they were required again. This is how the “fire plug” term stemmed from which is still widely used till date (Bernard 11).

Hydrants or fire plugs date back from to the 1600's. Firefighters would drill a hole in wooden street mains to provide water for bucket brigades. Afterward, they would use a wooden plug to seal the tap and mark the location (Bernard 11).

In the 1700's valves began to replace the simple wooden plugs and firefighters began carrying portable standpipes (vertical outlets) - which were inserted into the plugs.

The word hydrant in the ...