A fire hydrant failed to work as a fire burned through a house
on C Street in the Southwest portion of Hollister. It’s not the
first or the last time a hydrant will malfunction, but it is rare,
Fire Chief Fred Cheshire said.
”
It’s not a common thing
– it just happens,
”
he said.
”
There is not anything that we can do about it.
”
Cheshire said it has happened around four times in his 20 years
of service in the area.
On June 16, a hydrant on C Street malfunctioned, costing the
fire department three to five minutes as a house was burning,
Cheshire said on scene.
A fire hydrant failed to work as a fire burned through a house on C Street in the Southwest portion of Hollister. It’s not the first or the last time a hydrant will malfunction, but it is rare, Fire Chief Fred Cheshire said.
“It’s not a common thing – it just happens,” he said. “There is not anything that we can do about it.”
Cheshire said it has happened around four times in his 20 years of service in the area.
On June 16, a hydrant on C Street malfunctioned, costing the fire department three to five minutes as a house was burning, Cheshire said on scene.
The issue was that the stem, which opens the valve to the water, snapped. Firefighters had to change to a different hydrant on Line Street. The hydrant was replaced within 24 hours.
“It’s just because they get old,” Cheshire said. ” It’s like a faucet in your home – they eventually wear down.”
Maintenance of the hydrants falls to the Hollister utilities department, which is expected to check the numerous amounts of hydrants that run throughout the city.
The fire department gets involved with the testing of new hydrants when the utilities department asks for it, Cheshire said. Over time the city has changed its standard hydrant from a dry barrel to a wet barrel. The difference is that the new wet barrel hydrants have a shorter stem and require less torque.
The heavy torque needed could have accounted for the broken C Street hydrant because it was an old hydrant, Cheshire said.
But despite the new standard, the city doesn’t plan to replace all the old hydrants – instead waiting until they wear down and need replacing.
“It’s not a replacement program,” Cheshire said.
