Washington Firefighters Snake Hoses to Find Hydrants With Water
By Jeff St.Onge and Susan Decker
Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Washington firefighters had to string together a mile of hose, run it over a bridge and connect directly with water mains in the next neighborhood to put out a blaze engulfing an apartment building.
They couldn't get adequate water pressure from nearby hydrants. So after reaching the fire in a minute and 48 seconds, firefighters took more than seven hours to control the inferno last month in the Adams Morgan district, a center of nightlife in the U.S. capital.
``It's one word -- appalling,'' said Sam Goldstein, 32, a lawyer and neighborhood resident. ``I used to live in San Francisco, which is a really hilly city. If they could get water up to the top of Russian Hill, they should be able to get it up to Adams Morgan.''
The predicament underscored the crumbling infrastructure in Washington, where the transit authority proposes to raise prices to pay for maintenance to the aging rail system. The Adams Morgan fire sparked a public fight between the new fire chief and the independent water authority, prompting Mayor Adrian Fenty to threaten to take over the water agency, as he has the failing school system.
It wasn't the water system's first failure. On a single day in April, fires ravaged both the historic public library in Georgetown and the 134-year-old Eastern Market, a Capitol Hill landmark. Two hydrants by the library didn't provide any water at all.
After those blazes, the fire department began testing the city's 10,100 fire hydrants. It found 1,098 -- 11 percent -- weren't working.
`Life and Death'
Fenty said the Water and Sewer Authority, or WASA, must speed up its 20-year plan for replacing antiquated water mains, which are straining under the city's growing population and development. Businesses and condominium buildings have been crowding into gentrified neighborhoods.
``We cannot have a life-and-death situation on a 20-year timetable,'' Fenty, 36, said at a news conference after the Adams Morgan fire.
The agency is working to replace lead pipes contributing to elevated lead levels in drinking water. Most of the water pipes laid in the U.S. through the 1950s are reaching the end of their useful lives, according to a report from the American Water Works Association. The oldest cast iron pipes, dating to the 1880s, have a lifespan of 120 years. Ones from the 1920s last about 100 years, and postwar pipes about 75 years.
Outdated Hydrants
WASA also is beginning a $25 million program to replace more than half the city's hydrants because they don't meet modern codes.
All but 300 of the non-working hydrants were back on line by Oct. 17, according to the fire department. Still, Fire Chief Dennis Rubin, who has been on the job for seven months, said at a city council meeting that WASA isn't up to the job of providing water for firefighters and the city's 581,000 residents.
``WASA showed up that night with maps from 1985,'' Rubin said in an interview. ``We couldn't figure out where the mains were.''
Rubin, 55, and Fenty, who took office in January, say the aging mains are too small and accuse WASA of not replacing old pipes quickly enough.
WASA blames the fire department for hooking three hoses to one 6-inch (15-centimeter) water main in Adams Morgan instead of attaching some hoses to a main 600 feet (180 meters) away. The agency said 6-inch pipes are the right size for the neighborhood.
In the Georgetown case, WASA Chief Engineer John Dunn said one hydrant wasn't fixed because of an oversight. The other was scheduled to be repaired the very day that the fire occurred.
Playing Catch-Up
WASA says it has done much in its 10-year history to improve a system hurt by decades of neglect. The federal government had threatened to take over the city's water service before the agency's creation.
``The system was let go to hell,'' said Dunn, 70. ``We were almost bankrupt.
``Now our bonds have a double-A rating,'' he said. ``It astonishes me that people are saying, `Let's go back to the good old days.'''
The agency is losing a popularity battle because the public is sympathetic toward firefighters, he said.
``You're fighting motherhood and apple pie,'' Dunn said.
Cooperation on Testing
The agency and the Fire Department on Oct. 26 announced a deal that calls for the department to test the hydrants and the two sides to share the cost. Hydrants will be color-coded to indicate how many gallons of water they can release in a minute.
``It seems to me some people at WASA are not doing their job,'' said Milton Richardson, 29, a courier who has lived next door to the charred Adams Morgan building for seven years.
No one was killed in the blaze, though dozens were left homeless. Construction scaffolding now surrounds the building, which may not be ready for residents to return for a year.
``In case something like that happens in this building, we're scared,'' said Manh Phung, 60, owner of the Kogibow Bakery, two blocks away. ``We don't want to have to wait for water.''
To contact the reporters on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net ; Jeff St.Onge in Washington at jstonge@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 6, 2007 00:06 EST