Fire captain checks on hydrants

With just a quarter of the job done, he finds 13 with problems.

By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published August 21, 2007

Concerned that the city water department has fallen behind on inspection of fire hydrants, one Tampa fire captain has taken it upon himself to inspect hydrants. So far, he's surveyed two of six sections in his district and found 13 with problems.
	[Ken Helle | Times]

TAMPA - The city water department may have fallen years behind on its inspections of fire hydrants, but one Tampa fire captain recently took matters into his own hands.

Capt. Terry Gray at Fire Station 10 in east Tampa launched a survey of all the hydrants in his territory early this month. With about 25 percent of the job done, he discovered 13 hydrants with problems. Six of those had valves blocked by landscaping, street signs, fences and other items that at best would make the hydrants difficult to use in a fire. City officials couldn't provide the total number of hydrants in the territory.

Capt. Bill Wade, fire department spokesman, said Gray began his survey days before newspaper reports told of the Tampa Water Department backlog and of problems with a Hillsborough County fire hydrant in Northdale.

Wade said Gray was prompted to take a look at all the hydrants in the neighborhood when he discovered one with a tire wedged around it.

"The hydrant could have been used, but it would have taken a little more work to get the hydrant open," Wade said. "He and his crew rely on these hydrants to work."

Hydrants should have 3 feet of open space all around them.

Gray reported all findings so far to the city fire marshal, who passed the information on to the water department, which is responsible for hydrant inspections and maintenance.

A recent internal audit showed that 80 percent of the city's 12,700 hydrants hadn't been inspected every two years, the department's stated policy. State laws require that hydrants be inspected every year.

The water department has pledged to inspect the 11,000 hydrants that haven't been tested in the last year in the next two months.

In the past 10 days, about 540 hydrants have been tested, and only one had problems, said water department spokesman Eli Franco.

City officials plan to spend up to $1-million next year to hire a contractor to help stay on top of the inspections.

Water department officials say they fell behind because staff members spend most of their time making emergency repairs to the city's aging water system.

The hydrant problems aren't exclusive to Tampa.

Hillsborough County commissioners last week said they want to cut loose a Bartow company that inspects fire hydrants after a hydrant it said it inspected failed to work during a recent fire.

The fire hydrant on Bonne- ville Drive had been inspected and passed by Cropland Services two months before firefighters attempted to use it Aug. 7 to douse a fire that claimed a home there, forcing rescue workers to use another hydrant farther away.

The county's Water Resource Services Department subsequently inspected 106 similar hydrants and found nine others not working to standards, even though they had received passing marks.

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401.

[Last modified August 21, 2007, 00:25:44]