Why a pink flamingo might have been a better choice

[JackEMT 77]

A non-working hydrant as a lawn ornament?

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/01/03/fake-hydrant-reportedly-hoses-firefighters-in-marthas-vineyard-fire/

[IzzyEng4 427]

Ferriera acknowledged questions from critics and defended his crews, saying they are all volunteers and can’t be expected to know the locations of every hydrant in town.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????????

Isn't that what every apparatus operator is taught to do before they are cleared or at least ask the dispatcher where the hydrant is????

Edited January 4, 2012 by IzzyEng4

[fireboyny 61]

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????????

Isn't that what every apparatus operator is taught to do before they are cleared or at least ask the dispatcher where the hydrant is????

I agree, I hate it when Volunteer firefighters are held to lower standards, especially by officers of the volly dept...

however, I do think there should be some sort of legislation mandating that ALL hydrants that are not in service have a not in service collar on them. My neighbor has an old hydrant he uses as a mailbox post and I know that the Water Dept. tagged it w/ one (although any FF who thinks that a wet barrel hydrant from the 30s with a mailbox attached to it is an operable one should be "checked out")...

Edited January 4, 2012 by fireboyny

[ny10570 745]

To know every hydrant isn't excessive? I lived in one house for the better part of 18 years and I can't tell you every hydrant within a block of that house. I can however tell you every odd ball or uniquely important hydrant within the Pleasantville Fire and fire protection districts. I'm sure there are some savants that know, but there's no way the average mpo can tell you the nearest hydrant to any given address. Even the guy that knows 99% of them would take the hydrant that unexpectedly turned up probably figuring he had forgotten that one. To say they couldn't find a hydrant is unforgivable. But to accidentally take one that is identical to the real thing is absolutely reasonable.

[M' Ave 1,466]

Using volunteer status as an excuse is the biggest mistake this chief made. Are you a firefighter or not? If you want to be taken as seriously as career firefighters, then you can't use volunteer status as a crutch for missteps.

Crazy things do happen and it's not so hard to see why you might see a hydrant and assume it's a working one. However, I don't think it's a lot to ask for people to know hydrant locations in their immediate response area. I know in NYC we test every hydrant in our first due areas twice a year. We literally walk the streets from hydrant to hydrant, open and close them and grease the threads. Hydrants, like all of our other tools are (first and foremost), for our safety. Water problems are sighted in every fire with less-then-desirable results. Volunteer or Career, this is your job. Having in-and-out knowledge of THE key lifesaving tool isn't too much to ask. I'm not saying that you should be able to place every hydrant on a map while sitting in the firehouse, but you should be able to approach an address and have some idea of where the closest hydrants are.

[Dinosaur 844]

If the hydrant was in a fenced-in dog pen and not out at the curb like a normal hydrant it would seem to be the FD's mistake.

People have the damndest things as ornaments or decorations, even fire trucks!

[bigrig77 95]

The hydrant, which was around the corner from the burning home, was reportedly inside a dog pen.

So this hydrant was inside a dogs pen and they thought it was a real hydrant?

Ferriera acknowledged questions from critics and defended his crews, saying they are all volunteers and can’t be expected to know the locations of every hydrant in town.

To help clear this up, he said " We are not real firefighters. This is their hobby and you can't expect them to know that a fire hydrant that is not attached to the ground and in a dog run is not real."

It is your job to know where the hydrants are. You don't need to know exact locations of every hydrant in town. Before going out the door on a run we look at run cards or a map so we know where we are going. That is when you look and see where your hydrant is and the next one in case something goes wrong or you need to tap another one.

[Bnechis 3,961]

Having mapped out the 1,500 hydrants in my city I can tell you there are ones that you will never find if you do not have a map (and a few that even with the map and the water company engineer you will still not find).

I also found 3 hydrants that are ornimental and do not function (one was plumbed with a 5/8" garden hose oulet that worked).

What Eastchester, Fairview, Greenville, Hartsdale, Larchmont, New Rochelle, Pelham, Pelham Manor and Scarsdale have done is added rig laptop computers with mapping software

Lots to see here, hydrants: red, orange, green & blue are NFPA flows. Blue with a red ring is unknown flow.

Marked with a "P" are private, "T" are out of town (normally they would be tank, but we do not have any of those) they can also list dry ones & yard ones. If you click on the hydrant the yellow box pops up, gives some info, then if you hit "open" gives specs, inspection history etc. on the hydrant.

Out of service Hydrants (none here) get a big X over the top of them and that can be set on our master PC at HQ and it pushes that info out to the fleet every 15 minutes.

In this map if you hit a button (distanse to 3 closest hydrants) you get the above on the rig map. Note the distances are direct to the house not via roads, so they are approx and they are color coded by flow.

[JohnnyOV 2]

Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me that as volunteers, we don't have to do easy stuff like this?

(green is roads with no hydrants on them, but the cross street or access road has one, and yellow is out of the hydrant district, requiring a tanker shuttle)

Well if I don't need to know every hydrant, then I'm sure as hell not going to learn the roads either. Heck, why even pre-plan? We're just volunteers, we can't be bothered with auto-sprinkler connection locations and draft site access and other logistical things like that.

That entire officer staff needs to pack up, go home and join a damn club.

Edited January 4, 2012 by JohnnyOV

[SageVigiles 1,194]

We are not real firefighters. This is their hobby

Annnnd that about sums it up. How can you be a Chief with that attitude? If I were a member of this department I would be FURIOUS with him for saying something like that.

[Bnechis 3,961]

Annnnd that about sums it up. How can you be a Chief with that attitude? If I were a member of this department I would be FURIOUS with him for saying something like that.

Yes, I'm sure every member would be, but sometimes the truth hurts.

[efdcapt115 1,511]

The chief's answer is a classic example of an outdated fire service mentality. C'mon man!

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Yes, I'm sure every member would be, but sometimes the truth hurts.

I'm not going to judge an entire department on one mistake, I don't know what kind of department they are. Its definitely a demonstration of some serious training issues and expectations of membership, but volunteer departments don't have a monopoly on embarrassing screw-ups either.

Then again, if that's the Chief's attitude its possible that, by example, that attitude may have permeated through the entire department. Doesn't take much to poison morale.