A fire hydrant much like its wall attached fire extinguishing counterpart is a handy device to have close to your home. Apart from the obvious benefit of being able to help fire fighters put out a blaze anywhere in your neighborhood, it is also a great way of decreasing your home insurance premiums.
What is a Fire Hydrant?
A fire hydrant is also often referred to by a wide variety of other monikers such as a Johnny pump, a fireplug, fire pump, or just simply a pump. It is basically a connection point though which a firefighter’s brigade can tap into the neighborhood’s water supply and thereby refrain from going back to and from the station for fresh water to douse a blaze.
It is often considered a key component of an ‘active fire protection system’ i.e. a system that needs to be deployed for it to work, unlike a passive system that is inert.
Examples of the former include sprinkler systems, strategically placed fire extinguishers etc. while passive systems include fire retardant walls and ceilings.
Major advantages of being close to a fire hydrant
One of the single biggest advantages of having a home located close to a fire hydrant is the substantial decrease in home insurance premiums that the mere proximity of the fire hydrant can easily give to a home owner. Insurance companies like to hedge their bets and they will calculate that a home located close to an active and fully serviceable fire hydrant can lead to substantially less damage to the overall structure of the house. This is due to the fact that the fire brigade services will not have to wait to load their trucks before and during the fire fighting operation, just in case such a calamity occurs.
Lack of a fire hydrant, in contrast, can mean that the whole house may potentially be ‘written off’ and the insurance company will have to foot the bill not just for repairing damages, but for a new home outright. This is why they tend to lower their charges for home located closer to such hydrants vis-a-vis those that are located substantially further away.
And this is just monetary value . The house is not just a place that has only four walls and a roof, but rather a complete home, i.e. a place that has nurtured not just families but their memories as well. The loss of such memories, of grandmother’s favorite rocking chair, of the swing in the garden where entire generations used to swing. Such memories can never be replaced should such a cherished home be completely destroyed, in case of a fire.
Then there is the very real chance of injury or even death that may result in case a loved one is trapped behind. The emergency services will be able to do little, until and unless they are able to access the water supply necessary to put the fire out. Here too, a fire hydrant will be able to prove its worth well enough indeed.
Different components of a fire hydrant
However, a fire hydrant cannot really work in a standalone capacity, as such. First and foremost, it has to have a supply of water that can be tapped into, as and when required, especially in an emergency. If the water supply is used up during an untoward situation, then it is imperative that there should be an able system in place that will automatically refill this supply.
Such a system can consist of underground pipes or even a dam, but the source has to be replenished otherwise the fire hydrant will become functionally useless.
Booster
The very makeup of fire hydrant system calls for the utilization of a booster. If the fire fighters attach their hoses to the supply lines, only to see that the water is but a trickle rather than a powerful flood, then their firefighting efforts may all be in vain.
This is the part where a ‘booster’ comes into the picture. A booster does exactly what its very name suggests: I.e. it pumps in the required amount of extra water. While not every fire hydrant will require an external booster but in some variants, such a component is not only desirable but absolutely vital to keep the hydrant, fully functional at all times.
However the fire hydrant requires a certain amount of service before it can be said to be fully operational. With the passage of time the water reservoir may dry up or be used up. The booster may fall into disrepair, or the valves may not turn properly due to rust or the main line may choke due to excessive sediments.
Sometimes just the fact that it has not been used for many years can jam up the works so that the fire fighters may well end up losing precious minutes while they try to get the hydrant to become fully operatorial. This is precisely why frequent repairs and checks have to be conducted at least once a year to ensure the the equipment is fully functional and can perform as per specifications, should the need arise.
Luckily, there do exist many highly skilled professional plumbing outfits that will be able to give your fire hydrant the complete go though and repair or replace anything that does not work properly. They can also check to see if the water supply to the hydrant is also available or not and help provide the same in case of the latter.
In Arizona, the mesaplumbingcompany.com is a highly trained and skilled outfit that has extensive experience in repairing and maintaining fire hydrants in many cities in the state. Give them a call today so that their technicians can get on the job as soon as possible.