Davenport not in a rush to inspect its fire hydrants
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By Barb Ickes | Wednesday, September 19, 2007 |
A nearly 10 percent failure rate among fire hydrants in Bettendorf is sounding no alarms in Davenport.
Bettendorf Mayor Mike Freemire announced Tuesday that all but one of the city’s 133 hydrants that showed “operating issues” during a recent emergency inspection have been fixed.
The inspections came after Bettendorf firefighters encountered three faulty hydrants during three structure fires over a 10-month period.
City crews checked all 1,447 public hydrants and discovered the 133 with problems, immediately notifying Iowa American Water Co., which made the repairs.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Bettendorf Mayor Mike Freemire says all but one broken hydrant has been repaired. Watch his news conference www.qctimes.com/multimedia/video.php?id=1308
Officials from the water company vowed Tuesday to check every one of the region’s 7,100 hydrants annually. The company formerly was on a four-year maintenance cycle, and Iowa American General Manager Brock Earnhardt said thousands more hydrants in Davenport, LeClaire and Riverdale will be inspected next.
But Davenport Fire Chief Mark Frese said he knows of no plans to rush into an inspection cycle with his city’s hydrants.
“I have not seen an interest from any of our elected officials to say, ‘Go out and test 5,000 hydrants,’” he said. “Iowa American did a lot of flushing of our hydrants over the summer, and we are prepared for the times when we run into trouble.
“The fact that a hydrant itself stands unused for a period of time — it’s going to be stiff. We run into that all the time. We practice for this sort of thing.”
Besides, he said, when Davenport firefighters encounter a problem with a hydrant, they know backups are on the way with more water.
“If the first company finds a dry hydrant, two more (fire trucks) are coming behind and can find another one,” he said. “Plus, they’re carrying more water. We carry 500 gallons of water on each apparatus.”
After a second hydrant failed in Bettendorf, city officials launched a sample inspection and found five out of 100 hydrants were not operational. When a third hydrant failed early this month, Freemire announced that workers were being pulled from Public Works to help inspect every hydrant in the city.
At the time he announced the emergency inspections, the mayor was firm in his demands of Iowa American Water, saying the city would not interfere with the water company’s recent rate-hike request, provided Iowa American Water devoted a portion of the proceeds to hydrant maintenance.
At one point in the initial news conference, Freemire interrupted Earnhardt to say that the city would not tolerate anything less than a yearly inspection cycle.
At Tuesday’s announcement, the mayor spent considerable time applauding Iowa American Water employees and Earnhardt in particular for their response in repairing faulty hydrants.
He said he is proud of city crews and the City Council, adding, “I am especially proud of the people at Iowa American Water.”
Earnhardt said the previous four-year maintenance cycle was an “honest and well-intended effort to be efficient” and said of the new commitment to annual inspections, “We got the message.”
Freemire said he didn’t mean to “be stern” with Earnhardt, noting that the tone he used in the first news conference reflected a “look my kids have seen.”
Both men agreed that Iowa American will reimburse the city for expenses related to the inspections, but Freemire said he does not yet know how much the city invested in the effort. He said that seven crews spent 10 or 11 days inspecting hydrants.
“There’s never been any doubt in my mind,” Earnhardt said of the water company’s obligation to reimburse the city.
Over time, Iowa American will hire five more employees to devote to yearly inspections, he said.
“This is not characteristic of Iowa American Water,” he added.
The mayor referred to the faulty hydrants as “a wakeup call,” adding that the inspections were done without consideration of cost.
“What we’ve done is reassured our community,” Freemire said. “God has a way of working things out.”
Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.
WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE HYDRANTS
Each of the three fire hydrant failures in Bettendorf was different.
In the first one, at the multimillion dollar home of Mike and Mary Humes, a buildup of silicone in the front-yard hydrant clogged fire hoses. The silicone, used as an adhesive for cleaning agents placed in the water lines, was not properly flushed.
In the second fire on Overland Drive in May, a coupling was broken on a hydrant firefighters tried to use as a backup to refill their tanks.
At a fire in a trailer park early this month, firefighters encountered a cap that was stuck closed and had to open a second hydrant that was about two blocks from the scene. A cause for the third fire still is being investigated.
In the 133 cases of “operating issues” uncovered during the recent emergency hydrant inspections in Bettendorf, sticking valves were “seldom” the problem, Iowa American Water Co. General Manager Brock Earnhardt said.
More common, he said, was stuck nozzle caps.
The valve turns on the water. The nozzle is what is attached to a fire hose.
He said the sticking problems and lack of lubrication may be partly because of snow removal chemicals that are pushed into areas where most hydrants are found.
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