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Despite Confusion, FDNY Urges Residents to Use Fire Caps when Opening Hydrants

By Carla Zanoni | July 9, 2010 11:45am

By Carla Zanoni

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER MANHATTAN — Residents in Washington Heights and Inwood are getting mixed signals about opening their fire hydrants to stay cool in the summer.

The city wants people to use special caps on the hydrants to maintain water pressure for firefighting, and even trotted out former District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly this week to promote them. Trouble is, some residents are having a hard time finding those caps at local firehouses, and getting the FDNY to install them can be a cumbersome process.

During this week's triple-digit heat wave, several uptown residents and DNAinfo called local firehouses for the caps but were turned away.

A safety alert asking residents to report open hydrants was issued late Thursday by the Mayor's Office and Department of Environmental Protection.
A safety alert asking residents to report open hydrants was issued late Thursday by the Mayor's Office and Department of Environmental Protection.
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DNAinfo/ Carla Zanoni

FDNY spokesman Jim Long said the firehouses may have limited the number of caps to distribute because of ongoing water pressure issues in Northern Manhattan. But Long stressed that the caps are now available for adults interested in having a hydrant opened.

“We continue to monitor the situation up there and cannot have illegally opened hydrants,” Long said. “But people need to take this concern seriously and work with us, because if there is a water pressure problem they endanger their lives and firefighters' if there is a fire.”

The city's Department of Environmental Protection urged New Yorkers to report open hydrants without caps this week, as some people take matters into their own hands when the weather heats up.

The upper Manhattan neighborhoods within Community Boards 9 and 12 were the busiest areas for open hydrants, according to Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway.

FDNY and DEP officials explain that illegally opening a hydrant can be dangerous to the person unscrewing it, as the water pressure can reach more than 1,000 gallons per minute. The FDNY caps reduce a hydrant’s spray to 25 gallons.

And in times of extreme heat, when water use is up, open hydrants reduce water pressure, cutting the fire department's ability to battle fires.

DEP spokesman Farrell Sklerov said the city almost doubled its water consumption this week, using up 1.9 billion gallons per day during the record-breaking heat wave on Tuesday and Wednesday, up from the typical 1 billion gallons a day.

“It’s not just that we don’t like having open hydrants,” Sklerov said. “It’s that it puts communities at risk. There is a better way to keep cool and there is even a better way to use your hydrant.”