Connecticut
Taking a closer look at how fire hydrants maintained across Connecticut
The faulty hydrants after a recent fire in Waterbury are raising questions about how they’re maintained and what the guidelines are.
“It was horrific, because I was sleeping and I was woken out of my sleep,” Michele Philips, a neighbor, said.
It was a scary situation for her, seeing her neighbor’s home on fire on Bennett Street early Tuesday morning, and it was even more frightening when she saw the firefighters struggling to get a nearby hydrant to work.
“No water came out of it at all,” she said.
City officials say multiple hydrants had water flow issues before firefighters found one that was working properly on a different street farther away. That caused a 20-minute delay and is leading to concerns in the community.
“If that happened to us, what would have happened to my own house, and say if the fire had spread,” Philips said.
Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski said the issue likely stemmed from debris stuck in pipes more than 100 years old.
“We have very old pipes underground that eventually build up residue inside that slows the flow,” he said.
“Hydrants have about a 100-year lifespan. So there are a lot of hydrants, especially in your big four cities in Connecticut that are old,” Fire Chief Dan Coughlin with the New Haven Fire Department said.
Coughlin explained that hydrant maintenance varies by location, with no state law requiring a specific number of checks on public hydrants.
“It’s based on their needs, their manpower, for example, as well. So it’s different,” he said.
Coughlin said that in New Haven, hydrants are checked twice a year…and they work with their regional water authority for pressure testing.
“We flush them, we make sure we have good flow coming out of them. We don’t put a gauge on it to see the exact number that we’re getting out of there,” Coughlin said.
The National Fire Protection Association recommends hydrant flow tests every five years. Pernerewski said that he wants to go above that standard. Right now, city workers flush all hydrants every year, but he says they’ll also focus on water pressure testing after realizing that it hadn’t been done for over a decade.
“We’ll now have two folks who can go out and do the testing as well, and we can test while we’re flushing,” he said.
Along with water pressure testing, the mayor said he’s working with the fire department to bring back a color code indicating the pressure at each hydrant.
“Anything 1,500 gallons a minute or higher was painted blue. Green was for those between 1,000 and 1,500, and then red was for those 700 or less,” Pernerewski said.
Philips hopes these changes will mean they’ll have working hydrants.
“We’re talking about people’s lives, and you want to feel good,” she said.
CONNECTICUT (WTNH) – Some state parks have closed after their parking lots have reached capacity.
According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection parking lots at 3 state parks have reached their limit today and are closed to anymore guests.
As of this time the parks are:
-Silver Sands in Milford
-Wadsworth Falls in Middletown
-Squantz Pond in New Fairfield
We will update this list if anymore closures are reported today.
Connecticut
2 rescued, fisherman still missing after getting trapped in rising water at Connecticut beach
Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to a beach rescue in Santa Cruz County, California. Authorities said about eight rescue swimmers entered the water to extricate the victims.
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Two people, including a fisherman, have been rescued, and crews are looking to locate another that was trapped on a reef when water started to rise at a Connecticut beach.
The Fairfield Fire Department responded to a call for help after getting a report that two fishermen were in distress off the reef at Penfield Beach. It happened around 7 a.m. on Saturday.
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Investigators said that while the two fishermen were on a reef, the incoming tide quickly surrounded them, leaving them trapped, with the water still rising and no safe way back to shore.
A lifeguard station on Penfield Beach in Fairfield, CT.
(DeviantCharisma / Getty Images)
A witness saw what happened and jumped into the water to help. While they were able to find one of the fishermen, both were subsequently swept into deeper water, according to the fire department.
Police and fire officials dispatched multiple marine assets to the area, and the Fairfield Police Boat was able to rescue the witness and one fisherman.
Search efforts to find the second fisherman have been suspended for the night, but are expected to pick up on Sunday morning.
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Drone units from Fairfield and nearby Westport assisted in search operations. Helicopters from the U.S. Coast Guard and Nassau County, New York, also responded.
Dive teams from several neighboring cities and towns responded to the scene to assist with the search, too.
A peaceful evening at Fairfield Beach, Connecticut, with a lifeguard chair standing empty on the sandy shore. The serene waters of Long Island Sound reflect the soft pastel hues of the setting sun, while a near-full moon rises into the clear sky. The quiet beach scene, with coastal homes in the distance, captures the calm and tranquility of a New England beach town at dusk.
(Roshan Polepalli / Getty Images)
The rescued fisherman was transported to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, due in large part to the heroic actions of the witness, according to fire officials.
Despite an extensive search involving local, state and federal resources, the second fisherman has not been located, the fire department said.
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The operation has transitioned from a search and rescue mission to a recovery effort, and officials said efforts to locate the man, identified as 34-year-old Kwahiwi Edwards, of Queens, New York, will continue.
Various jingle seashells on Sasco Beach in Fairfield, Connecticut, on a sunny day.
(Daniel Hanscom / Getty Images)
“The Fairfield Police Department and Fairfield Fire Department extend their thoughts and support to the family and loved ones of the missing fisherman as search and recovery efforts continue,” the fire department said on Facebook.
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Officials are also thanking the witness that jumped in and whose quick actions helped save a life.
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