DUNCAN — A good friend in another town, in a previous year, was appreciative of a city project to paint the fire hydrant at the corner of his property. It looked fresh and clean — but it wasn’t the right color.

So he painted it himself.

That was a mistake.

The city’s goal wasn’t simply to improve the appearance of his yard, though it obviously did just that.  Its reasoning was more to identify the pressure level of the hydrant, so if it needed to be put into service, fire officials would immediately know its limits.

Sheepishly, he learned his lesson, allowed the department to re-paint the hydrant and left matters alone.

I tell you that so you might avoid the same situation.

City of Duncan officials are in the process of re-painting 1,333 hydrants across the city. Their goal is to gauge the pressure, make a small dent in local beautification efforts and perhaps even lower your insurance premiums.

So leave the color scheme alone, please.

Determining how many gallons of water each hydrant produces in a minute is the benchmark.  And it’s been a while since a similar project was undertaken here.

Firemen started the work a few weeks ago. Water department employees joined in. Now inmates, under supervision, are involved.

There are five colors in the ranking system. A light blue cap on a silver barrel means the hydrant pushes over 1,500 gallons a minute. That’s a lot.

A green capped-hydrant moves between 1,000 and 1,499 gallons a minute; a yellow one between 500 and 999 gallons; and a red one between one gallon and 499.

Black-capped hydrants are dead or inoperable and are under review.

Interim fire chief Dayton Burnside admits he’d like all Duncan hydrants to achieve a green rating, but adds that’s not particularly feasible, anywhere. He does say approximately half here are green and virtually all are either serviceable or soon will be.

“Unless you’ve got a black cap,” he said, “there is no reason for concern.”

Even if it is black, the water department is developing a plan to either repair or replace it. That might mean moving it to a better location, increasing the size of the line serving the hydrant or whatever else might be deemed necessary.

Commercial and industrial guidelines require a hydrant every 300 feet. Residential regulations are every 600 feet. Lines range in size from four-inch to 16-inch with most water pumped through the city’s water plant. Local towers are a supplemental source.

Workers are flow testing each hydrant. They’re flushing the lines. They’re lubing and greasing whatever parts need attention. They’re assigning a color based on their findings.

And they’re hoping to save us all money.

Inspectors from the Insurance Services Office, better known as ISO, will be visiting and taking note of Duncan in a few weeks. The city carries a Grade 5 rating now. Burnside and others in the 44-man and 1-woman department hope their $3,000 investment helps reduce it to a Grade 4 or even a Grade 3.

Though other factors — station location, firemen training, dispatch services and response time, equipment and apparatus inventory, vehicles, maintenance, documentation etc. — are part of the evaluation, fire hydrant condition and pressure are critical elements.

Using a checklist, inspectors start with a 100 score and work down, discounting for deficiencies.

A favorable score not only brings to light community safety, it also offers homeowners and business owners the possibility of lower insurance premiums.

Few achieve a Grade 3 mark, said Burnside, an Oklahoma State grad with three degrees, but he remains optimistic, even hopeful.

He knows the project pushes forward a significant plan, understands future maintenance won’t be as complex and adds a touch of color throughout the city.

It’s a meaningful safety measure and we, of course, can help.

Once the cap and barrel are painted, leave them alone.



edarling@duncanbanner.com

580-255-5354, Ext. 130