Beacon to test, code fire hydrants

Colors will tell output capacity

By Nik Bonopartis
Poughkeepsie Journal

BEACON -- As the summer heat rolls on through August, the city water and fire departments will open each of the city's 600 fire hydrants -- but not so residents can cool off.

The city will begin testing the hydrants this week to gauge the water flow, both for regular maintenance and to implement a new color-coded system to identify how fast water can flow from each hydrant. Officials hope the system will let firefighters identify the quickest and best hydrants in the event of a fire.

The city will start testing the hydrants and moving over to the new system on streets north of Wolcott Avenue and east of the Fish-kill Creek, city Water Superintendent James McCullom said. If the project keeps pace, he said, it could be completed by winter.

''This will give us better numbers of what we're capable of out of our system,'' Fire Chief Terry Davis said. ''It gives you an idea of what you can get out of that hydrant, so you know how much water you can safely get out of a couple hydrants running at one time.''

City workers will be opening hydrants and recording gallons-per-minute readings for each hydrant.

The tests, Davis said, will be instrumental in determining how effective the fire department will be in re-sponding to calls. The system is designed to allow the department to tap into the most powerful hydrants quickly, rather than connecting equipment at the scene of a fire only to find out there's not enough water flow.

Discoloration likely

McCullom said the city wants residents to take notice because water quality will be affected for a short time each day in the neighborhoods where workers are testing hydrants.

''The only change in the short term is they may experience discolored water while the testing is going on, which is going to be a little bit of an inconvenience to people, so we want to let them know what's going on,'' McCullom said.

Because there are about 600 hydrants to test, McCullom said, the testing will be done during the day when most people are working. The good news is the inconvenience of discolored water won't last long.

''We'll be flushing out at the same time,'' he said. ''The water quality will be compromised briefly but it will be clear within a 24-hour period.''

AT A GLANCE
HYDRANT CODES
As part of the new system, hydrants painted white or blue will denote flow capabilities of 1,500 gallons per minute or more. Green hydrants mean water will flow at between 1,000 and 1,499 gallons per minute. Orange hydrants signal a flow of 500 to 999 gallons per minute. And red, the traditional color of hydrants, will mean a flow of less than 500 gallons per minute.