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Several Kaufman County water supply districts have interpreted a new state law in a way that has them painting hydrants black — and has the county fire marshal seeing red.
House Bill 1717 is only a few paragraphs long, and says any fire hydrant that does not work must be painted or tarped over in black so firemen know it doesn’t work.
But some of Kaufman County’s rural water supply companies have begun painting all hydrants black, officials say, because of concerns they could be held civilly liable for any malfunctioning hydrant — defined in the law as one that didn’t flow at least 250 gallons-per-minute — just in case.
Rose Hill Special Utility District General Manager Vickie Armstrong confirmed last week that her district, which has 14,000 connections in the Kaufman area, has painted its hydrants black and said it was initiated because of the law, which took effect last Sept. 1.
Armstrong said a rural water utility often deals with issues that can create reduced flow or other problems, and as a result, Rose Hill couldn’t guarantee the adequate flow all the time.
“Rose Hill has never assumed that it is has fire suppression [responsibility],” Armstrong said. “We have fire fill, which means we allow the fire departments in the area to fill from our hydrants, but they can’t connect directly from a hose to it.”
According to Armstrong, Rose Hill did mail letters to customers explaining why hydrants would be painted black, but also sent correspondence to area fire departments.
“In that letter to fire departments, I explained that our policy has not changed that they could still fill up at any hydrant they needed to, but they just could not attach a hose to it and pump from it,” Armstrong said. “The bill says if you can’t guarantee 250 gpm for two hours — which I can’t guarantee — then to abide by the law you need to paint [hydrants] black.”
Armstrong added that she received no response from either customers or fire departments when Rose Hill alerted them to the change last summer.
Kaufman County Fire Marshal Larry Ewing, though, believes water supply districts such as Rose Hill and Scurry-Gastonia (which also has painted hydrants black) are overreacting to the law.
“HB 1717 had the good intent of requiring anyone with a decorative fire hydrant on their property to paint it black so that fire departments would know it was not a source of water,” Ewing said. “The water departments in many locations statewide overreacted and because there was a minimum water flow also stated of 250 gpm, which most hydrants in our county were capable of supplying, they decided to paint all hydrants black, therefore completely voiding the intent of a good bill.”
According to Ewing, some water supply companies have even gone as far to reclassify hydrants as flush valves when communicating with clients.
“Look up flush valve and fire hydrants on the Internet and see what each looks like,” Ewing said. “These companies in rural areas are not required to supply fire flows to fire departments. They could have just stated that instead of painting all flush valves i.e. fire hydrants black.”
Aside from weakening the intent of the law, Ewing said the practice creates problems for firefighters.
“Fire hydrants are hard enough to see when red, try to locate one at night when it has been hidden black,” Ewing said. “Now, if a home owner with a decorative fire hydrant follows the law and paints it black it looks the same as the water departments and the fire department doesn’t know if it supplies water or not.”
According to Ewing, the county’s subdivision ordinances place requirements on location of hydrants and size of water lines, but doesn’t require a certain amount of pressure per hydrant.
“Supplying water companies cannot be required to supply any particular amount of water, therefore, in some instances it does make fire hydrants less effect,” Ewing said. “For the most part, fire departments in our county are very aware of water restrictions and move water tankers to those scenes as soon as needed.”
The controversy over HB1717 has not gone unnoticed by its author and others in the legislature. District 4 State Rep. Betty Brown (R-Terrell) said she is monitoring the situation.
“I have started visiting with water corporation in my district to see how it is working out for them,” Brown said via e-mail on Friday. “I had received no complaints thus far. If there are problems being encountered with the implementation I will be seeking solutions to amend the present legislation in order to accomplish the original intent which was to give fire fighters reassurance when approaching a hydrant that it will provide the pressure needed to fight the fire.”
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(4) comments
As the Captain of a Kaufman County VFD I will tell you this if you would like to donate 829.99 plus tax I know that I would be more than willing to go out and test those hydrants. That is a very large amount of money when your talking about a department that works strictly off donations. Now tell a man who already volunteers his time to go out and flow hydrants all day and what exactly is a fireman to do after he tests the hydrant and finds out that the flow rate is not to standard remember he is a fireman not an employee of the water utility company or district so he goes back to the water utility or district office and tells them hey this hydrant is not up to par, and then they tell him oh well we never said it was to begin with. I will say this in my department I personally have driven to a majority of the fire hydrants and determined wether or not they were functioning and wether or not you could hook up to it but even then if I found a hydrant that was broken or a repair needed to be made I cant do anything about it because I dont work for the water company and I am not licensed or trained to repair fire hydrants. And on a personal note there are several thousand hydrants in my community and as for the minimal cost that shows how little you know about the operations of fire departments as previously stated in my comment the cost for a hydrant test gauge is 829.99 plus tax this allows the fire department personnel to go "yep that fire hydrant is putting out 40psi of pressure, but wait a minute the water department already knew that thats why its black." Fire hydrant testing is part of basic fire training however fire hydrant repair is not and thats the job of the water department and now we are back where we started.
Frank Freeman commented, "Eventually, if homeowners fire insurance rates start going up because of ISO ratings of Fire Departments change negatively, the public outcry will force the Utility Districts and the State lawmakers to come up with a workable solution". I stand by my original comment regarding Fire Departmental responsibility of maintaining hydrants. Waiting for "public outcry" is about as useless as waiting for gas prices to drop. Once again, it sounds like another case of political rhetoric. This issue isn't a case of "my water is my responsibility". This is an issue of making sure a fire department, whether municipal, or rural, has water at a given hydrant when they pull up to it. If I'm a firefighter pulling up to the scene of Mr. Freemans housefire, I don't care if the hydrant is municipal, or rural, I just want water to do my job. I read, then re-read your statement on utility district policy, and here's another "loophole" for you. If I can fill up my fire truck from any hydrant, yet can't attach my hose to that hydrant directly in order to fight the fire, how about I connect the hose directly to my truck, then pump it out the other side to fight the fire?Again, the main issue here is "workable hydrants". I don't care if you have to bucket brigade water to the fire, as long as it comes from a live, properly functioning hydrant. Municipalities have salaried firefighters to handle their responsibilities. And if I'm not mistaken, rural volunteer Fire Departments require there volunteers to undergo periodic mandatory trainings. There is no reason hydrant testing can't be part of those training sessions. And don't preach funding to me on this issue. The cost for them to test hydrants is extremely minimal. Afterall, they aren't testing thousands, or even hundreds of them. As far as the "political rhetoric" regarding utility district policy goes, I took the time to email Rep. Betty Brown and voiced concern to her about district policy. Maybe a few thousand more emails to her from her actual constituents might influence her to delve into the issue further.Lastly, which of these two situations are going to cause more public outcry:1. homeowners fire insurance rates rising. 2. a loved one dying in a fire because there is no water in the closest hydrant, yet the fire department didn't know this beforehand because it either wasn't tested, or not marked as a dead hydrant?Stop relegating responsibility, and start accepting it. How much more difficult can you make a simple solution?
James Sauls stated " First of all, the main people responsible for any, and all fire hydrants should be the local fire departments". While municipal Fire Departments check hydrants, most volunteer departments do not have the time or the manpower to do so. In these cases they rely on the individual Utility districts to maintain hydrants.If a utility district changes policy so that Fire Departments "could still fill up at any hydrant they needed to, but they just could not attach a hose to it and pump from it", then the Utility district will potentially be on the hook next time someone's house burns down or someone dies due to the lack of a workable water supply. If Fire Departments have to change tactics to carry their own water, this may require the purchase of water tenders, the price of which is prohibitive for most rural departments.Eventually, if homeowner's fire insurance rates start going up because ISO ratings of Fire Departments change negatively, the public outcry will force the Utility Districts and the State lawmakers to come up with a workable solution.
I'm responding to the article regarding the painting of fire hydrants. First of all, the main people responsible for any, and all fire hydrants should be the local fire departments. And in an emergency fire situation, they should be able to see the hydrant out in plain site, and painted a highly visible color. I work for the facilities management division of the city in which I live. I deal with the fire department on a daily basis, providing them with information regarding mapping, location, placement, and visibility of all hydrants in town. Here are a couple of suggestions for you. First, paint all hydrants high visibility yellow. It's universal, easy to see, and believe it or not, that color goes well with local greenery. Second, hydrant manufacturers make a plastic ring that is to be placed behind the screw in hose cap located on the sides of hydrants. Our local fire departments paint those rings high visibility orange, then attach those to the "dead" hydrants. That way, upon arrival, they can see that any of those hydrants with rings are inoperable. Those are just a couple of suggestions to a multitude of options.
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