Coffee Table Quick Tips: Vol. 2 - Issue 24

A Little Help for the Hydrant Hindrance

Working as a Firefighter in New England, you’d be hard pressed find a hydrant that wasn’t equipped with a spring loaded hydrant indicator mounted to the top edge of the weather cap.

These markers serve the purpose of making a water supply identifiable from a distance and more importantly due to the weather up North, the indicator allows for you to identify hydrant locations during heavy snow fall.

While these devices are a help with finding a hydrant, they often act as a hindrance with dressing

a plug and getting the hydrant open and operating in a timely fashion.

For this week’s Coffee Table Quick Tip, we are going to discuss an effective and efficient means

of removing the spring loaded hydrant indicator from the equation and creating an open avenue for the rotation of your hydrant wrench.

Often, you will find a 36” – 42” steel “cheater bar” stored along with your hydrant bag to provide added leverage for hydrants that are difficult to maneuver.

** I do NOT promote the use of a “cheater bar” for operating hydrants; however if you have one in hand, it can easily be implemented to perform this Coffee Table Quick Tip**

Prior to applying your hydrant wrench to the top mounted operating nut, simply slide the “cheater bar” over the spring loaded hydrant indicator and use the weight of the steel to firmly hold the indicator down and out of the way.

When it is imperative that a water supply gets established, removing and hindrances and obstacles from the equation can make the difference in creating a successful outcome to the operation.

AB Turenne is a 25-year veteran of the fire service and is currently the Captain of Training and Safety with a career department in Middlesex County Connecticut. As a Certified Level III Fire Service Instructor, AB's training curriculum has proven to be conducive with the operational needs of those he teaches and in turn has improved the human capital knowledge of many. A graduate from the Master of Public Administration program at Anna Maria College, AB has continued his efforts in training and education by contributing to the Fire Engineering Training Community.