ADOPT A HYDRANT

As winter approaches, please help your local fire departments by adopting the fire hydrant closest to your home or business and keep it free of snow during the winter months.

 

Please make it a point to uncover your fire hydrant after each and every snowfall by clearing a path approximately 3 feet around the hydrant and shovel a path from the street or roadway up to the fire hydrant.

 

These actions will allow the fire department to quickly locate the fire hydrant and obtain a water supply for firefighting activities, and give the fire department room to work with this hydrant should the need arise.

 

At a fire, the fire department must quickly locate and gain a water supply source from the closest fire hydrant to a home or a business. A fire truck carries enough water on board for approximately 8 minutes of firefighting.

 

If a fire hydrant is buried by the snow, it is difficult to find and valuable time is lost by the time it takes by digging it out. It may take from 5 to 7 minutes to dig out a fire hydrant buried by the snow. This delay in gaining a water supply from a fire hydrant may disrupt the timely manner in which firefighters are able to fight the fire and may allow a fire to grow. A fire doubles in size every 20 seconds.