Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Hydrant outside burning church was frozen shut

From NBC:

Members of Deliverance Tabernacle Church in South Ozone Park, Queens are optimistic they'll rebuild after a fire ripped through their house of worship. Rob Schmitt has more.

QNS 2-ALARM 144-01 SUTTER AVE, HOUSE OF WORSHIP FIRE IN BASEMENT & 1ST FLR, UNDER CONTROL

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where were FDNY inspectors?

RC said...

There are over 100,000 hydrants in NYC. Local FDNY line units inspect them twice a year, in the spring and fall. They cannot inspect them in the winter because if the hydrant is faulty and does not drain properly, it will likely freeze, causing the very problem the inspection seeks to uncover.
If in the course of routine operations, a line unit discovers a frozen hydrant, it gets marked with a yellow disk, so subsequent units know to avoid it and use other nearby hydrants.

Frozen hydrants are an understood and unavoidable peril of winter fire operations, and unfortunately cause loss of property and life. A frozen hydrant contributed to the deaths of 2 firefighters in the Bronx (a third indirectly) on the Black Sunday fire of January 23, 2005.

Anonymous said...

Good info. Thanks