Help firefighters respond quickly, clear your fire hydrant

Bob D’Aoust, District Chief with Edmonton Fire Rescue Services on Feb. 16, 2011. Photograph by Erik Nelson.

By Erik Nelson

EDMONTON – Clearing fire hydrants during the winter season is one easy way to help fire fighters act quicker in case of an emergency.

When heavy snowfall happens, residents should make sure nearby fire hydrants are clear and unobstructed, says a local fire chief.

Bob D’Aoust, district chief with Edmonton Fire Rescue Services, said Epcor is under contract with the city for periodic maintenance of fire hydrants, which includes clearing them of snow.

“Because there is well over 17,000 hydrants in the city, we don’t expect the inspectors from Epcor and transportation to be everywhere at once, so we all have to be the eyes and ears,” D’Aoust said.

If the transportation department, when clearing the roadways, ends up blocking a fire hydrant they have a bobcat clear it out immediately.

Citizens who are unable to clear a hydrant can call 311 and the city will send out a crew to do the work for no cost.

According to city bylaws, nothing  should obstruct or interfere with use of any fire hydrant. Corwin Odland, a spokesman for the city, said that there is no fine for not shoveling out a hydrant because Epcor is contracted to remove the snow.

“We just ask homeowners to make sure they try to clear it out,” said Odland.

Fire Rescue Services has a number of tools available should a fire hydrant be frozen when they arrive, including spades, scoops, pickaxe’s, and a hydrant kit which has wrenches and tools made for use with fire hydrants.

With the recent water main burst in the McDougall area, the fire department gave a lot of thought as to how they would have put out a fire nearby, said D’Aoust. Relay pumping from a hydrant where was flowing water would have been possible, or having tankers bring in water.

But while having cleared fire hydrants is useful for firefighters, another problem is icy sidewalks.

“You’re packing some real heavy equipment and the guys are also in firefighting gear, and when you go down you go down hard,” D’Aoust said.

D’Aoust recommends clearing ice when it gets warm enough to do so and using sand and ice melt to keep sidewalks safe.

“Be vigilant and watch whats going on in your neighborhood. Express your concern if something has gone amiss. It’s better that we know and get our there and doing something then nobody informing us whatsoever.”

This map shows that status of the fire hydrants in the Sherwood community on Feb. 17, 2011.

Green markers are fire hydrants that are cleared of snow, yellow markers are somewhat cleared, and red markers are buried.