The Importance Of Maintenance And Repairs Of Fire Hydrants At Regular Intervals

It is true that the fire extinguishing equipment is not used often, but they can be a real lifesaver during the fire accidents. They ensure safety of the people as well as the business at all the times. Therefore, a proper and complete fire hydrant service can make a huge difference in saving property and life.

What are fire hydrants and their functions?

The fire hydrants equipment is basically used to provide the water supply during the fire outbreak. They are even used to refill the tank of the fire fighting appliance. Therefore, their regular service and maintenance is extremely important to ensure that they work smoothly and effectively in case of any emergency and are in their optimum condition.

If the fire hydrant systems are set up on any public property, their maintenance and servicing at regular intervals is normally done by the local governing bodies. They must be well maintained by them.

In case they are established on private property, it becomes the responsibility of land owners or the tenants that resides there to maintain these systems well. There are many reliable and reputable companies out there that specialize in maintaining these systems that you can hire to take good care of this equipment for you.

These fire hydrants should be inspected twice or once in a year. It is normally advisable that the private owners should keep records of every maintenance and inspection. It prevents any kind of hassles with the local provincial inspector, fire commissioner, or with any other local authority.

What does the annual inspection of Fire hydrants include?

It is important that the fire hydrants are able to deliver the water to the fire fighting equipment. Regular inspection also ensures that they can be operated as well as accessed properly.

Apart from the good maintenance, the country fire brigades even encourages many organizations to have their fire hydrants properly plated and signed to allow quick identification, especially at night time. It should be noted that the fire hydrant is located below the ground for connecting it to water mains. Thus, it has above as well as below the ground inspection.

• Above the ground maintenance
  

The fire hydrant frame, surrounding surface, and the cover are checked for any kind of damage. Even the hydrant marker post is properly examined to see whether the information shown is clearly visible and correct.

• Below Ground Inspection
  

This inspection includes the checking of hydrant itself and the hydrant pit. It is checked for any kind of leakage. In case the pit may need clearing of debris or silt that may affect water delivery for the fire fighting needs, then those conditions are also properly addressed.

The fire hydrant is even “wet tested” to make sure that it works, according to expectation. They may even be tested for water flow and water pressure. Fire hydrants are typically made from the iron materials, so they are meant to last over 50 years. However, internal working components like seats and gaskets need routine replacement and maintenance.

A Complete Guide To Dry Riser - Its Importance, Benefits, Requirements, And Much More!

Many studies have shown that limited or poor access to the water mains is one of the main causes of uncontrollable fire that may cause a great damage to both human life as well as property. Mostly every home has a fire prevention system, but very less people are aware about the ways on how the fire fighting crew would get access to the water mains. 

Dry risers are the most efficient and simple way to provide water to multiple floors of a tall building. The time saved can avert a disaster. There are many benefits of installing dry riser. Let us know about them in detail!

Benefits of Dry Risers and requirements that must be met by them

• Their installation doesn’t require any kind of special equipment or any facilities
• They don’t require the design or the structure of any building to be modified or altered.
• Most efficient way than other systems to provide quick access to the water mains.
• Dry risers generally have compressed air that is filled inside the pipes. However, they can be filled with water instantly to fight against fire by pumping from the Fire Service Appliances.
  

The requirements that must be met by the dry risers are as follows.

• The dry risers shouldn’t be more than 60 meters apart in horizontal direction.
• They should have fire appliance within 18 meters of the inlet box of dry riser.
• No portion of floor area should be more than 60 metres from outlet.
  

What benefits do you get from Fire Extinguisher maintenance visits?

Well, many organizations tend to avoid the importance of regular maintenance visits of the portable fire extinguishers including Dry Risers. However, it must be noted that having a professional and trained technician to visit your business premises for dry riser servicing becomes very important as well as necessary these days.

The primary purpose behind their visit is the service of portable fire extinguishers. However, there are a lot more services that they can offer you in terms of your fire extinguisher maintenance.

Even other things are well considered by them. For instance, they will ensure whether the equipment is fit to serve the services it is intended to. A regular visit even assures that the fire equipment is located properly and correctly and is not obstructed. They even check the signs that indicate whether it has been tampered.

The technician would also inform your staff some of the main things about the fire equipment they need to know along with the instructions required to use them and even what to use the equipment on. While the technicians are on their visit, they would also ensure whether all the fire-fighting alarms, doors, extinguisher, and equipment meet the required standard or not.

The means of escape should be clearly signed. The fire extinguisher technician is properly trained and keeps up-to-date with the current codes of practices. It makes them deliver clear, detailed, and in-depth services than just the maintenance of the fire equipment.