Value of a Fire Hydrant Survey

Abstract

Fire hydrants installed in connection with the water mains in any community are of value and importance only in so far as they are available for instant use in case of need. The community has a right to insist upon the constant availability of these hydrants, especially if the water department is paid a specified amount per hydrant per year for this service. This is equally true whether the water department is privately or municipally owned and operated. In the final analysis, the citizens pay, either in the form of taxes or insurance rates, for fire protection. If the community is fortunate in having water works officials who are educated, trained and experienced in that work, their confidence will be entire and complete, and they have a right to expect that these men will be alive to their responsibility and constant in their vigilance of the operations of their department, since it affects the welfare of the community they serve. An appreciation of this service will sooner or later be reflected through a better understanding by the fire insurance adjustors and rate makers, who in good time will give the community the benefit of their confidence in the local water department, through a reduction in the fire insurance charges. This, in itself, should be sufficient grounds for the community to insist that regardless of the salaries required to be paid to get this class of executives, those in charge of their local water plant should be men who are capable of satisfactorily performing their duties to the ultimate benefit of the community and of these served. Knoxville, Tennessee, for the past four years has been in the process of rehabilitating its old water works, and in the construction of a new water works supply and distribution system. This has included the building of an entirely new pumping station and filtration plant, a new ten million and a new one million gallon reinforced concrete, covered reservoirs, the laying of approximately 28 miles of trunk,