When responding to a fire, every second counts. Firefighters must quickly find fire hydrants that connect to the biggest water mains with the highest water flow.
Rockville’s Department of Public Works is working to ensure the city’s fire hydrants are accessible and in good working order. The city also provides Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service firefighters with maps of the city’s hydrant locations, including available hydrant water flows in gallons per minute. The maps will be used by firefighters on the scene of fires to determine which hydrants have the water flow to fight the fire they are facing.
In the meantime, Rockville continues its multiyear effort to paint hydrants according to National Fire Protection Association guidelines, which include painting hydrant barrels yellow to increase their visibility at night and painting the hydrant tops one of four colors indicating their flow rate.
Hydrants are painted when the city rehabilitates water mains tied to the hydrants, when development occurs, or when Boy Scouts volunteer to paint hydrants, often as part of Eagle Scout projects, said John Hollida, a civil engineer who oversees the city’s water main rehabilitation program.
The city’s water distribution system includes nearly 174 miles of water pipes and 1,407 fire hydrants, about 500 of which have been painted according to NFPA guidelines. The Mayor and Council are considering accelerating the pace of the painting project as part of their ongoing Fiscal Year 2019 budget deliberations. If approved, the city would paint the remaining 900 hydrants over the next three years.
Learn more about the city’s fire hydrants at https://rockvillereports.com/facts-about-fire-hydrants.