Incident Report

Subject:                   Water for Fire Fighting from Municipal Fire Hydrants     

Date of Email reporting Incident:   Wed 27/11/2002 09:04

Report Detail:

Water for Fire Fighting from Municipal Fire Hydrants during Fire Service Industrial action:

Where any of the BP facilities in the UK for which you are responsible rely on either initial or back up fire water from municipal fire hydrants you may wish to read the attachments to this e-mail.

Document DT follows a practical check and test of fire hydrants I carried out last weekend covering a complete parish council area in Berkshire. As a result of the findings a number of discussions were held with the fire authority and the water authority covering the area to validate the findings. Subsequent discussions with the Thames Valley Police resulted in the detailed listing of fire hydrants in the findings (removed from the attachment above) in respect of this particular semi-rural area being passed to the military control responsible for Green Goddess cover of the parish concerned.

If the results are extrapolated nationally there is a potentially serious lack of operationally effective fire hydrants and HSE managers responsible for those BP facilities relying on public fire hydrants may wish to assure themselves during any period where reliance is on fire response by GG's with military crews not familiar with the area, that:-

• Location of the nearest fire hydrant is confirmed and a note kept.
• Where this cannot be ascertained that the fire authority and/or the water authority is contacted.
• Where possible a check and test made to ensure the hydrant is operational.

Additional Information

FIRE HYDRANTS AND THE GREEN GODDESS’S

The New Roads & Street Works Act 1991:Hydrant Testing Update
(see attached 2 pages)  has effectively stopped fire authorities in the UK from the traditional and very necessary practice of checking and testing of fire hydrants using fire engines and the on duty fire personnel.
{note the majority of fire brigades used this method however a minority used none uniform staff}
The use of firemen has advantages of :-

• Over time you become familiar with the topography, roads and areas you are providing initial cover for, thus speeding up attendances.
• The operation of a fire hydrant becomes 2nd nature so at night the operation can be carried out without lighting. 
• Individual firemen remember exactly where the fire hydrants are, so when damaged/missing marker plates, this is not a problem.

The forceful enactment of the above act has effectively stopped firemen from the routine checking and testing of fire hydrants.   At least one fire authority has ceased such testing some 6 months ago and has recruited 2 none uniformed staff to be trained and equipped to carry out this function.
{ask for the ‘water officer’ in fire brigade HQ’s to check out this statement]
Notes
DCOL 6/2001 refers to Dear Chief (fire) Officer letter of October 2001
CACFO refers to Chief & Assistant Chief Fire Officers association who’s current president is Jeff Orde the Firemaster of Strathclyde although at the time the letter was published it was Richard Bull CFO of Tyne & Wear.
At the time of the original note sent to fire authorities it was widely assumed by Chief Fire Officers that all fire brigades would be granted an exemption.

Does all the above really matter ?
Fire Services act 1947 as amended:-
Section 1 (d) - - - Brigades SHALL make arrangements for inspecting or otherwise water supplies etc.
Section 13 Supply of Water for Firefighting

Unlike the modern fire engines with high pressure hose reels from duel purpose pumps (90 % of all UK fires are normally extinguished with these very efficient hose reels) the Green Goddess’s have limited water tank, no high pressure reels and system of pipes that take the water form the GG tank to the pump that is very inefficient.  Therefore the GG needs a good external source of water to get any reasonable water flow through the pump, hence you always see the news pictures of them tied into a fire hydrant.

BUT are the hydrants going to work ad how efficient have the fire brigade checks been in the past ?

The case study below from a small village only 18 miles from central London undertaken over last weekend on Sat. 23rd and Sun 24th Nov 2002 in which an attempt was made to check and test all the villages fire hydrants, located in an area served by whole time shift fire stations, would indicate there is a serious problem if it is accepted that fire hydrants are essential for the task of fire fighting.

Over the two days a total of 27 hydrants located
Hydrants  incapable of operation due to debris/mud/stones blocking access to the standpipe thread – 3    These were cleared and now operational.
No post and plates on 8 hydrants so no indication where they were located. These now marked by 2 metre yellow wooden posts
Number of hydrants not found but stated to be in existence by the fire brigade water officer - 6 and one hydrant that is variously described under 3 different locations
Of the hydrants stated as being in this particular Parish, plus the additional ones not on record books and water company web site maps, but found during the inspection, the combined total should be 40.  At the time of inspection only 17 or 46.5 % out of this total could be identified by a marker plate and could immediately have been used.
Following action by the village residents this number is now 27 or 70 % of the total.
This still leaves a shortfall of 30 % in the operational cover of the village fire hydrants.