Beginning on Monday, August 26, the Fredericktown Community Fire District will conduct testing of fire hydrants in the Village of Fredericktown. If will take a couple of months for us to conclude this first testing and document the information. Over the next week, the following areas will be our focus of testing:
• High Street in the area of the old elementary
• Tuttle Avenue
• Trailer court
• Westgate Drive
• Hydrants along Ohio 13 south of Ohio 95
• Village Parkway
• Hydrants along Ohio 95 west of Ohio 13
• Hydrants around the Fredericktown K-12 building
• Levering Drive
• Salem Ave Extension
These flow tests, as recommended by the NFPA, differ from the hydrant flushing that the Village conducts throughout the year. During the course of hydrant flushing by the Village, they open or close valves as a part of their process. For flow tests to provide accurate data, the hydrant and water system is kept in its “normal” state of operation and would show what pressure and flow rate we should expect on any given day. While it would be great to test the hydrants during the Village “flushing”, it is not possible at this point.
Firefighters will gather the flow data from the hydrants and utilize it to pre-determine what hydrants are best to access when responding to a fire-related emergency. If mechanical issues are found, this information will be conveyed over to the Village. All of this work assists with pre-incident planning that our department conducts to ensure we are adequately prepared before the emergency happens.
Fire department officials identified these tests as a priority to help with the district ISO (Insurance Service Office) score, which measures the fire prevention and suppression capabilities of the department.
Fredericktown residents should be advised, the testing of hydrants can cause some rust to appear in the water for a short amount of time. While there are no health hazards associated with this, it is best to avoid washing white or light-colored clothing while testing is underway to avoid the possibility of stains.
The FCFD will post information about our hydrant testing, and areas that we are working in on our Facebook (FCFD Station 410) and our website www.fredericktownfire.net in order to keep residents up to date.