Published: July 03, 2008 11:59 pm         

Water availability an issue in local fire

ROYSE CITY — Lack of water was cited by fire fighters as a factor in the loss of a home to fire in the Alexander Ranch subdivision in unincorporated Rockwall County last week.

Water is available, but the manner in which it can be accessed created delay in getting adequate water supply for the volunteer fire departments of Royse City, Rockwall, Fate, Union Valley, and McLendon-Chisholm according to the county fire marshal, and Royse City’s fire chief.

By the time the hydrant in front of the house could be turned on, using a special wrench, much more of the house was engulfed than it was when the initial response was made by Royse City and Fate VFDs, according fire chiefs of both departments.

In Alexander Ranch, located off of State Highway 276, as in many residential developments in unincorporated areas or ETJs in counties throughout Texas, water, water lines, and flush valves are provided by a rural water supply corporation or utility district.

The corporation or district serving the often sparsely populated area is not required to provide “fireflow” — enough volume and pressure to man a hose directly from a fire hydrant. It is cost prohibitive, and traditionally, prior to the recent booms in population, not as needed. Fire departments in rural areas have often filled their trucks from a pond or swimming pool. They can fill them from the valve or hydrant as well, if they have the special tool.

What a laymen might view as a fire hydrant is actually a flush valve to the water supplier.

The general manager of the Cash Special Utility District (SUD), Clay Hodges noted that the flush valve could be a “big white piece of pipe sticking up out of the ground.” Instead Cash SUD, like many, uses the flush hydrant, which allows the water to be moved five feet a second to flush out impurities. Also, it provides the volunteer fire departments with a place to hook up and fill up a truck, Hodges noted.

The hydrants are typically kept turned off. A special wrench is used to turn them off or on, on a valve located in front of the hydrant, Hodges said.

According to the State of Texas, Rockwall County Fire Marshal Wesley Roberts said, the hydrant is a flush valve. “I was calling it a fire suppression system,” he said during his efforts to convince Cash SUD to keep the hydrants turned on.

He began those efforts when Alexander Ranch consisted of “just a handful of houses,” he said. “I did everything I could, even called the State of Texas, and I found out there was nothing I could do or the state could do to make them turn those mains on,” he said.

Roberts said he had been told by Cash SUD officials, that the hydrants were kept off in response to 9/11, as an effort to keep limited terrorist threats on water supplies.

Hodges said the district has had the practice since before he arrived 10 years ago.

Blackland Water Supply, another rural water company supplier in Rockwall County, also keeps its flush valves turned off. “Otherwise we’d have water theft like you wouldn’t believe,” said Jennifer Cannon, Blackland’s general manager.

In 2007, the Texas legislature passed HB 1717, which requires that hydrants through which fireflow is not guaranteed by the owner, must be painted black. Cash SUD has fulfilled that requirement.

“The legislation was filed and passed with the strong support of the State Firemen’s and Fire Marshal’s Association of Texas, according to Ken Petersen, writing for the Texas Rural Water Association, of which Cash SUD is a member.

“Over the years, firefighters have become increasingly concerned, especially rural areas, that nonfunctioning fire hydrants are preventing us from protecting homes and businesses from fire ... too many times, we lose houses and businesses because when we arrive at the scene and hook up to the hydrant, there is no water,” Petersen wrote.

This was the situation as described by Roberts, and by Royse City fire chief Ricky Bell. Also, Roberts said he was told by Fate VFD fire chief Sean Fay, that “If we would have had water, this fire would never have gotten as bad as it got.”

“One clear difficulty is that rural public water systems typically do not provide fireflow, and expressly disavow any responsibility for fireflow in their tariffs and service policies,” wrote Petersen, in an issue of the Texas Rural Water Association (TRWA) newsletter.

HB 1717 amends the State Health and Safety Code so that “all devices within a public water system that have the potential to be mistaken for fire hydrants, but which are nonfunctioning or unavailable for fireflow use must be painted black by the system,” noted information made available to TRWA members.

Through further work, the districts are trying clarify the system of valves and hydrants.

“The District is trying say ‘hey these are our customers too, how can we work with the volunteer fire departments to help them out. Before it wasn’t much of an issue — now it seems to be coming to the forefront,” Hodges said. He noted that the department’s usage must be reported to the supplier, which must report it to the State.

To serve the fire departments better, Cash SUD is preparing color-coded maps of the hydrants and their pressures, and agreements.