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Fire Hydrant Status Check

dcogcadmin | August 12, 2009

Update: David Statter has posted on WUSA the list of 34 trouble spots around the city that, for one reason or another, might experience water difficulties in the event of a fire.  The fire department has clarified that there are special plans in place to meet the needs of these trouble-spots in the event of a fire. 

Update: David Statter has posted on WUSA the list of 34 trouble spots around the city that, for one reason or another, might experience water difficulties in the event of a fire.  The fire department has clarified that there are special plans in place to meet the needs of these trouble-spots in the event of a fire. 

Prompted by the recent fire that destroyed former D.C. School Board president Peggy Cooper Cafritz’s home, the City Paper reviewed the status of information available to the public about the functioning of District fire hydrants, a subject over which the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) and D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) have been in disagreement in recent years.  After a fire gutted the Georgetown Library in 2007, the two departments argued over the percentage of non-working fire hydrants around the city, with WASA citing a much lower figure than FEMS.  The dispute has been revived lately, with conflicting accounts of the problem firefighters faced fighting the Cafritz fire, though in the more recent fire the claim was that water pressure in the area was low. The City Paper posting includes a link to real-time fire hydrant status updates that are made available by WASA.