Wow! I had no idea! (fire hydrant color code)

[Rich Engelhardt]

http://www.firehydrant.org/info/hycolor.html

I had no idea they were color coded. I wonder how a lot of places get around this with their decorated/painted hydrants?
I wonder if they just leave the tops their normal coded color?

[Steve Eure]

You would be amazed at what firefighters have to learn in order to be certified by the state. My daughter and her husband are both firefighters and it is actually a science putting out fires and on attacking such things. Not your ordinary grab the water hose and squirt at a high volume.

[mike holden]

I don't think that applies everywhere. In my neighborhood, all the hydrants are all yellow. Where I grew up they were and still are a red body with white tops and covers. Neither of those color schemes are listed in your article. Probably because both of my examples are fed from the same source as are all the hydrants in my area making the color coding scheme irrelevant.

[Stan Calow]

The size of the pipe serving the hydrant as well as the size of the hydrant determine its capacity. Its important because if you connect a pumper truck to it to boost the pressure, you can collapse the water main.
Yes its a problem when people paint them. Cities allow them to do it anyway because its popular. It should be a universal standard, since you can have other fire departments come in to help.

[Mike Henderson]

I don't think that applies everywhere. In my neighborhood, all the hydrants are all yellow. Where I grew up they were and still are a red body with white tops and covers. Neither of those color schemes are listed in your article. Probably because both of my examples are fed from the same source as are all the hydrants in my area making the color coding scheme irrelevant.

I don't think those color codes are used here, either. They're all yellow with no other marks, such as different color caps, on them. I suspect the firefighters have data on the hydrants (location, flow capacity, pressure, etc.) on their computers. They may even get additional information sent to them when they're dispatched to a fire. At least I hope so.

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

When my brother was a firefighter in Albany California they had a card file on every part of the town with the hydrants and alarm boxes marked and any corresponding street crossing information. The dispatcher knew before the trucks rolled and was able to inform the crews on the way.

Every jurisdiction is likely to have their own methods.

jtk

[Tom Stenzel]

I don't think that applies everywhere. In my neighborhood, all the hydrants are all yellow. Where I grew up they were and still are a red body with white tops and covers. Neither of those color schemes are listed in your article. Probably because both of my examples are fed from the same source as are all the hydrants in my area making the color coding scheme irrelevant.

It's not the source that's the issue, it's the capacity. That's not normally a problem in the Detroit Metro area as the water system was built for a population and industry growth that didn't happen. It's big enough that mothballing the Northeast water plant has been floated.

The article has the NFPA standards and then mentions some non-standard additions to them. That's what's nice about standards, there's so many of them.

At the sewage plant we used fire hydrants for non-potable water (painted an indicating color) and the Fire Department was giving us the dickens over that. Oddly enough they didn't want their trucks contaminated! The problem is that a fire hydrant valves close below the frostline and we needed them to work in the winter. So we needed a valve that acted like a hydrant, functioned like a hydrant, could be used and a hydrant but didn't look like one. It was a problem when I left and there's probably a few still non-potable water hydrants out there.

-Tom

[Ronald Blue]

Definitely not the standard here. Most if not all are red. Often in town they will use multiple hydrants if it's a large fire.

[Bill Dufour]

Purple is the color for recycled water for hydrants and sprinkler heads. You see quite. a few in Southern California. I do not believe they have allowed the recycled water to be reintroduced into the drinking water supply, yet. Plans are in the works for the local sewage plant to sell its production to the irrigation canals for farmers.
At least one big pipe supplier has purple pvc for sale, up to 10" or so.
Kaiser Hospital, built 5 years ago, has all purple sprinklers for the landscaping. I believe they have their own sewer plant.
Bill D

[Alan Rutherford]

Wow! I had no idea! Not about the color codes. That was interesting but what really blew my mind was the rest of that web site (http://www.firehydrant.org/). "FireHydrant.org is the largest and fastest growing fire hydrant resource on the Web! "

There is technical information (http://www.firehydrant.org/info/index.html): Flow calculator, Double Steamer Hydrants, Storz Hydrant Parts, A Dry Hydrant Design for Cold Climates, Required Maintenance of Hydrants in Mobile Home Parks, etc, etc.

There are fire hydrant collections: http://www.firehydrant.org/collector/index.html including wooden reproductions!

Fire hydrant restoration tips: http://www.firehydrant.org/collector/restoration_tips.html

"...One of our goals at FireHydrant.org is the historic preservation of fire hydrants. In order to do this, we must document and learn about every type, brand, and model of fire hydrant....Save Old Rare or Unusual Hydrants Before they are Extinct! "

These people are fire hydrant aficionados. Just as SMC is a unique resource fueled by people who have a great deal of knowledge, experience and love for some subjects that are relatively well-known, firehydrant.org covers a subject that I suspect most of us would never consider that way.

[Rich Engelhardt]

These people are fire hydrant aficionados. Just as SMC is a unique resource fueled by people who have a great deal of knowledge, experience and love for some subjects that are relatively well-known, firehydrant.org covers a subject that I suspect most of us would never consider that way.+1 - although I have found in life that - there's people that collect/accumulate/study/analyze just about any and everything under the Sun. Just like pets - people keep the darnedest things as pets.

[William Batdorf]

Here in Eastern Penna., the fire departments are mostly volunteer, but very well trained and equipped, and the hydrants are owned by the municipal water system. There is a national standard for color coding hydrants but it is not mandatory. As a fire officer and BSA Asst. Scoutmaster, I am currently serving as a mentor to an Eagle Scout candidate whose Eagle Scout project is to flow test and color code all 168 fire hydrants in our municipality. It is a very worthwhile project that has been enthusiastically supported by both the municipal water authority and the local fire departments, both of which have supplied funding and volunteer labor in support of the project. Don't assume that the fire hydrant near your house is sufficient to battle a substantial fire. Many hydrants in this area can only supply between 500 and 1000 gallons per minute, (some more, some less) whereas most modern fire pumpers are capable of pumping 1500 to 2000 g.p.m. or more. For what its worth, the NFPA standard identifies hydrants capable of supplying 500 G.P.M. or less as RED, 501 to 999 G.P.M. as ORANGE, 1000 to 1499 G.P.M. as GREEN, and above 1500 G.P.M. as BLUE. What does the hydrant closest to your house or shop flow?

[Bill Dufour]

They just re-piped the water mains in my neighborhood and all the new hydrants are yellow. Which is not on the code list above?
San Francisco, and I suspect other port cities, has some hydrants that just stick into the bay so the trucks canc pump salt water if needed. They never do it because it fouls the pumps. I belive they did use these hydrants about 20 years ago when Loma Priata broke many of the mains and they had fires that had to be put out.
I have heard that during the 1906 quake and fire they discovered hydrants had never been hooked into the water mains. Supposedly they contracts required installation of hydrants but nothing required they be hooked to anything.
Some hydrants still are simply dips into large underground tanks in case the water mains break.

When we went to a wedding. at a ski resort in summer we saw the hydrants had vertical pipes about 10' tall so they could be hooked onto above the snow. Of course they clear the snow to some extent but keeping up with 50' in a season is a full time job and then some after a big storm.
Bil l.
Bill D.

[Adam Clap]

I found that people with daltonism should recognize such color codes and marks somehow.

[Ole Anderson]

Individual communities may or may not choose to follow NFPA hydrant color coding. In the township I served as consulting engineer for nearly 25 years, we did follow that coding. We would computer model the entire system and determine the available flow at each hydrant. Rather than painting the hydrant, we would use the proper color coded reflective tape on the flanges of the barrel. Hydrants were all painted red. In an adjacent community, they painted the entire hydrant the appropriate color, but based on water main size that the hydrant was connected to: 6"=red, 8"=orange 12"=green, 16" or larger=blue, not following the letter of the NFPA guidelines. A hydrant fed on a short looped 8" main with reasonable static pressure in the area can easily flow 1500 gpm and therefore be coded blue rather than orange, so flow modelling or actual flow testing is needed to determine the actual flow available at a hydrant. Flow testing is more fun, watching 1500 gpm spray out from a hydrant while measuring residual pressures at various points in the neighborhood, necessary to calibrate the model.

[Bob Bouis]

One day a huge fire truck pulled up, two people got out, and they spraypainted the hydrant next to my house completely white. I don't remember what color(s) it was before.

The truck sat idling on the curb while they did this. Its exhaust killed about a 3-foot half circle of grass in my front yard.

[Matt Meiser]

I don't think that applies everywhere. In my neighborhood, all the hydrants are all yellow.

I was just going to say that. They are all yellow down here too. Maybe a Michigan code thing?

Edit: Ah, see Ole explained why. Yellow is probably a lot easier to see in the snow or in the dark.