Fire Hydrant Inspection

Have you ever wondered who makes sure the fire plug turns on and flows water. You would think it would be the city water service that installs them into the ground. Well the truth is as tradition the city of Mobile fire department and firefighters, captains and drivers have been the people ensuring the fire hydrants are in working order.

Fire plug inspection is done once every year and is usually done during the months of March through May. During these months fire crews are out riding through neighborhoods and highways to get all plugs checked throughout the entire city of Mobile.

When fire crews go out to inspect fire hydrants they do more than just turn the water on. When checking, inspecting, and flowing a fire hydrant firefighters and the crew need to take some equipment with them to do this job.

To check a fire hydrant firefighters need a plug wrench, oil in a squirt bottle, bush trimming sheers, orange square markers, flat head screw driver, Phillips head screw driver, plug wrench, grease gun, allen wrench set along with a bucket to carry it all in.

To properly check fire hydrant firefighters will unscrew the stem screw on top of the stem and fill the small opening with grease and then replace the screw. Then the firefighters will unscrew the fire hydrant caps and oil the threads on the hydrant. Next the firefighters will replace all the caps but one and then a firefighter will turn the fire hydrant on to ensure water will flow out.

After water flows from the hydrant the firefighter will turn off the water and the other firefighter will screw the cap back on the hydrant. The captain makes a record of where the plug is located and anything wrong with that plug on a 3x5 card that is labeled plug record and the things mentioned below are reported on the 3x5 card.

The following things are things that are reported on a 3x5 card if something is wrong with the hydrant. If a hydrant is very hard or impossible to turn on or off, will not turn on, will not turn off, missing a cap, if threads are cross threaded, if leaking anywhere around the base or stem, or missing a street marker. Other things that can be reported is a hydrant that is not accessible, to close to a fence or anything that can make it hard to turn on the hydrant.

The fire hydrants that will not turn on, off, cross treaded, leaking around the base or stem will be reported to the Mobile water service as that fire hydrant being out of service. If a fire hydrant is put out of service one of the firefighters will place an orange square marker on the hydrant and then screw a cap in front of the orange marker to let other fire companies that they cannot use that fire hydrant.

Checking fire hydrants is a free service that the city of Mobile fire crews perform every year to ensure that fire hydrants are in working order.