By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
November 5, 2006
Greenwich firefighters in the backcountry sometimes stretch a mile or more of hose to reach a hydrant or other water source to fight blazes, according to Fire Inspector John Fronio.
The first 10 minutes of fighting a fire often makes the difference between saving or losing a house, Fronio said.
"It all boils down to time," Fronio said. "We can lay a mile of hose in 10 minutes, but we can't put the structures out without water."
Now Fronio and Assistant Chief Joseph Benoit are asking backcountry residents owning ponds, lakes, or building new swimming pools to consider installing "dry hydrants" to improve fire protection for their neighborhoods, part of an effort to speed up the pace at which the hydrants are installed.
Dry hydrants are suction devices that tap into ponds, streams, groundwater and even swimming pools to give firefighters quick access to water in areas where it is scarce. The hydrants are most often located on roadsides, with an underground pipe connected to the nearest water supply.
"We need to get this out to the public," Fronio said. "If somebody has a pond on their property or is thinking of building a swimming pool, we're here to work with them to get a dry hydrant put in. Our first concern is life safety of both residents and for firefighters, and if we can improve the dry hydrant program and it saves one life, it's worth it."
In December 2004, the New Jersey-based ISO, an independent rating agency whose evaluations are used by insurance companies to set premiums, slightly improved the town's fire protection rating in the backcountry, based largely on the advances in its dry hydrant program, Benoit said.
"We're not talking about an instant change in the rating, but if over 10 years we put in 40 or 50 dry hydrants, that will make a major difference," Benoit said.
The 2004 rating gave the town a score of 4/8B, with 1 being the highest score and 10 the lowest. The 4 rating applies to parts of the town within five miles of a fire station and no more than 1,000 feet from a hydrant. Areas with an 8B rating are more than 1,000 feet from a hydrant but have met a minimum requirement for providing 250 gallons per minute for 20 minutes during the initial response to a fire, ISO Vice President Mike Waters said. Waters said that in 8B areas, which are largely wooded with large homes, improving access to water sources is the best way to improve the insurance rating of an area.
Benoit said that under current department policy, dispatchers deploy three engines and two tanker trucks together carrying around 11,000 gallons of water to fires in areas where hydrants are scarce.
The creation of the North Street fire station and expansion of the Banksville firehouse, plus the purchase of more mechanical pumps by the Round Hill Fire Department, have also improved fire protection, Benoit said.
The department has gained final approval to install four new dry hydrants on Sumner Road, North Porchuck Road, Riversville Road, and at the Ernest Seton Thompson Boy Scout Reservation this winter, Fronio said.
Benoit said that residents who have allowed dry hydrants on their property recognize they are improving safety for the entire area.
"It's about community fire protection," Benoit said. "Some people we approach are eager to take part if they think it helps the community."
A worst-case scenario occur-red in 2001, when a home in Conyers Farm, one of the town's most exclusive neighborhoods, burned down with a loss of $40 million, Benoit said.
"We couldn't get enough water to put it out," Benoit said. "It was one of the worst residential losses ever."
To reach water quickly enough, firefighters have occasionally driven trucks to the shore of backcountry ponds, sometimes miring the vehicles in muck, Fronio said.
"We'll bury a truck if we have to to get the water," Fronio said.
Not including the four hy-drants scheduled to be installed, the department has installed about a dozen dry hydrants in the town's backcountry neighborhoods since 2002, at a cost of between $12,000 and $16,000 each. The number of those installed before 2002 is uncertain.
Todd Kennedy, chairman of the Representative Town Meeting's District 11 delegation and a volunteer for the Banksville Independent Volunteer Fire Co., said that several of the dry hydrants installed in the past have become unusable when water levels fall during droughts or in the winter.
The Banksville department covers about 7.9 square miles of Greenwich's northernmost reaches and is largely responsible for getting water to fires in the backcountry.
"There is one on Stanwich Road in the reservoir, which won't work if the water is below a certain level," Kennedy said. "But all sorts of accommodations can be made to produce water. A dry hydrant in a pool can produce enough water to fight a fire."
More stringent building codes in recent years also seem to have curbed some of the electrical fires that have started in the backcountry, Kennedy said.
Banksville Independent Vol-unteer Fire Chief David Barker said that dry hydrants make it easier to fight fires, but that Banksville firefighters also need to rely on other equipment to overcome obstacles to bringing water over long distances.
At least twice a year Banksville tests the dry hydrants within its coverage area to assure they are working, Barker said.
When dry hydrants are not available or if they are inoperable because of freezing weather, Barker said the department has become skilled at pumping water more than a mile to fight a fire.
"With Greenwich implementing a dry hydrant system it is definitely a help," Barker said. "It does save time, but there are other options. No matter what the circumstance, we've learned to generate water to put out fires over the past 50 years because we've had no choice."
Banksville and the Round Hill Volunteer Fire Company both possess an arsenal of portable pumps of varying power which can siphon and deliver between 250 to 1,500 gallons a minute, Barker said.
"If I can get (a truck) within 80 feet of a water source, I can use hydraulics and pump water from anywhere at that point," Barker said. "We're always trying to look and adapt because there are always problems."
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