Dry hydrants not typical, officials say

How’s this for a nightmare: Your house is burning and firefighters can’t get a drop of water out of nearby hydrants.

That scenario may have crossed the minds of Atlanta area residents after what happened in East Point last week.

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PHIL SKINNER / pskinner@ajc.com

Jose Contreras tests a Sandy Springs fire hydrant. Local governments say they do their duty to keep their hydrants working.

Firefighters in that Fulton County city struggled to find a working fire hydrant last Sunday as they fought a blaze in a vacant apartment building.

Witnesses said firefighters were unable to draw water from five nearby hydrants and finally found one working more than a quarter-mile away. The city’s Fire Department said the first hydrant firefighters tried did not have enough water pressure, they skipped two others that had previously produced low water pressure and tapped a fourth.

So, could this happen to you?

The odds are slim, based on a survey of officials from other cities and counties in the Atlanta area. They say only a tiny percentage of the public fire hydrants in their communities are out of service at any given time because they are routinely inspected and repaired.

No state law governs testing, so procedures vary by city and county. The variations in those methods can account for the different ratings Atlanta area cities and counties have received from the Insurance Services Office, an independent organization that rates the effectiveness of fire protection systems. Those ISO ratings can affect homeowner insurance rates in those communities.

The ratings are on a scale of 1 to 10. The lower the score the better. A rating of 1 represents “exemplary fire protection.” East Point has a 4 rating, compared with Alpharetta, which has a 2; Austell, 4; Atlanta, 2; Cobb County, 3; College Park, 4; Decatur, 2; DeKalb County, 3; and Marietta, 3. A community’s water supply — including the condition of its fire hydrants and how often they are inspected — accounts for 40 percent of what goes into an ISO rating.

Insurers pay close attention to those ratings, said David Colmans, executive director of the Georgia Insurance Information Service, which represents home, rental and auto insurers.

“When rates are set for homeowner insurance, the ISO rating is figured into that,” Colmans said.

The American Water Works Association recommends that hydrants be inspected at least once a year to make certain they are working properly.

A survey of metro Atlanta communities showed inspections ranged from one to four times a year. Cobb firefighters, for example, inspect the hydrants twice a year. When Cobb firefighters find an inoperable hydrant, they place a red disc atop it, alerting other firefighters it is out of order. Then they report it to the county water department to fix it.

“It is a huge priority because you don’t want what happened in East Point,” said Denell Boyd, a spokeswoman for Cobb Fire and Emergency Services. “No fire department wants that to ever happen. How are you going to do your job if you don’t have water?”

Private responsibility

Private property owners are responsible for maintaining their own hydrants, some of which are located in apartment communities and office campuses.

East Point officials blamed their troubles on city-owned hydrants suffering from low water pressure, and they continue to investigate what happened.

East Point Fire Chief Rosemary Cloud said she requires her department to inspect city fire hydrants twice a year. The city’s Public Works Department is responsible for making repairs. Billy Lunsford, superintendent of the city’s Public Works Department, said he was unaware of any hydrants being out of service Friday.

There are many reasons why East Point’s hydrants could have failed, according to area utility officials. They could be damaged by vandals or might be leaking.

Car wrecks are among the most common reasons for broken hydrants, utility officials said. Or someone could have turned off a valve in the water system during a leak months ago and forgotten to turn it back on.

“Most likely there is a valve on one of the mains somewhere that has been closed for who knows what reason and it wasn’t reopened,” said Spencer Lambeth, owner of Conyers-based Triton Industries, which has tested and repaired hydrants for local governments across metro Atlanta.

Sandy Springs is paying Lambeth’s company about $74,000 to inspect and map all the public hydrants within its borders. City officials have also hired a consulting firm to advise them how to boost their ISO rating from a 3 to a 2.

On Wednesday, a two-man Triton crew drove through the city, stopping about every five minutes or so to test a hydrant. One of the workers placed a gauge on the hydrants to test water pressure, looked for leaks, slathered white grease like cake frosting on their openings, spray-painted each bright silver and wrapped them with reflective tape so firefighters could see them at night.

Sandy Springs Deputy Fire Chief of Operations Dennis Ham, who is overseeing his city’s project, was saddened by what happened in East Point.

“What a nightmare,” he said. “Not being there, I just can’t imagine what they went through. For the fire department, that is one of their worst nights — to pull up and you can’t get water and someone’s house is on fire. That is a horrible feeling. I feel for them.”