Thieves target fire hydrants

In addition, some ground hydrants are inaccessible because they have been paved over. Joseph said $100 million is required to fix/replace deficient water mains and hydrants in the city, and install additional mains and hydrants at new locations in Port-of-Spain.

But he pointed out that WASA’s grid of pipelines was merely a back-up system to the dedicated salt-water supply ran by the Fire Services about which he could offer no information. In addition Joseph said that the fire hydrants which ran off of WASA’s fresh water supply were also operated by the Fire Services.

The consultation was called because of DOMA’s concerns about the fire at the People’s Mall in 2005 and the recent Frederick Street fire. A WASA map of its hydrants in the city indicated that none exist along the length of Charlotte Street nor Henry Street.

Joseph indicated that most of the city’s mains were laid 50 years ago. One pipe running from Maraval Reservoir was laid in 1853. The pipes’ age and weakening condition, he said, meant that many could not withstand a high water pressure.

He revealed that half the fresh-water hydrants in Port-of-Spain are non-functional or inaccessible. Some 25 percent of hydrants could only withstand a weak pressure of five to 19 pounds per square inch which was inadequate to fill fire-fighters’ hoses to directly douse fires, but adequate to fill up the tank of a fire-engine.

Only a quarter of hydrants could withstand the required 25 psi to fight fires, a pressure that will shoot water from a vertically-held hosepipe up to 40 feet in the air, said Joseph. These numbered 18 hydrants. Showing a photo of encrusted water-pipes, he said a two-inch pipe may be effectively narrowed to half-inch.

Joseph revealed that the number of hydrants in the city had fallen from 242 in 1963 to 141 currently, of which only 67 are working. “From 1963 to now we’ve lost 100 hydrants,” he said.