#49737 - 09/21/05 07:39 PM
Pay extra to protect your home from fire?
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 09/15/05
Posts: 2485
Loc: California
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Just read an article about the San Francisco Fire Dept and SF's use of non-standard-sized hydrant fittings in this article . SF uses 3-inch fittings instead of the typical 2 1/2 inch ones so fire companies responding from outside the city, for example, after a major earthquake, would need adapters. It's an informative article. Although I was born and raised in SF, I never knew that SF had a special, one-of-a-kind high-pressure hydrant system in parts of the city. Cool! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Or that "our" hydrant fittings don't match anyone else. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> OK, ETSers, who would buy an adapter and keep it in their garage to make sure that any fire engine responding near your home would be able to hook up to the nearest hydrant in the event of a fire at your home? I mean this question mostly in jest, but then again, it does make you think. My parents still live in SF.
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#49738 - 09/21/05 07:44 PM
Re: Pay extra to protect your home from fire?
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Old Hand
Registered: 11/02/03
Posts: 740
Loc: Florida
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This cracks me up:
But San Francisco officials say they have a state-of-the-art system that has worked for them for more than half a century, and they are not interested in changing it.
Um, I'm no fireman, but I'm guessing the state of this particular art has improved a little in the 50 years since this was true.
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#49739 - 09/21/05 07:46 PM
Re: Pay extra to protect your home from fire?
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Old Hand
Registered: 09/12/05
Posts: 817
Loc: MA
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Just one more reason why I'd never live in San Francisco.
_________________________
It's not that life is so short, it's that you're dead for so long.
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#49741 - 09/21/05 08:42 PM
Re: Pay extra to protect your home from fire?
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 09/15/05
Posts: 2485
Loc: California
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Good points, cedfire.
I'm just thinking about Katrina and NO, where you had difficulty moving around, lack of communications, and assistance arriving from places with no knowledge of your disaster plans. I would expect these conditions to exist after the Big One in San Francisco as well and any plan that relies on outside fire companies knowing and getting to centralized locations to obtain adapters is not likely to work well. The article mentioned the Oakland Hills fire and how outside fire companies rushed straight to fires and found that they couldn't hook up.
Granted, the cistern system is there, too, but I'm just playing devil's advocate here. OK, I'll stop playing fire chief now. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
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#49742 - 09/21/05 09:34 PM
Re: Pay extra to protect your home from fire?
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Addict
Registered: 07/10/03
Posts: 659
Loc: Orygun
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If the Big One hits San Francisco (spent a few years there as a kid myself, even in a couple of earthquakes) the fire department will probably be forced to use the cisterns anyway. If I remember correctly, the water mains in 1906 were pretty much rendered useless due to the earthquake. Although we've come along almost 100 years, water systems don't really change that much and are still quite vulnerable to the ground shaking. As for the high-pressure hydrants downtown, I don't want to be around when one of those puppies breaks loose with 300+ psi behind it. That's liable to kill somebody. P.S. - If you ever get the chance, be sure to stop by the SFFD museum! Really neat history there... http://www.sffiremuseum.org/
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#49743 - 09/22/05 12:19 AM
Re: Pay extra to protect your home from fire?
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Cranky Geek
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 09/08/05
Posts: 4642
Loc: Vermont
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Not worth while for the reasons that cedfire gave. But also, if the big one hits, I'm not sure there will be much to do but watch it burn.
But I don't live in San Fran, so what do I know? My two cents are worth maybe two cents.
_________________________
-IronRaven
When a man dare not speak without malice for fear of giving insult, that is when truth starts to die. Truth is the truest freedom.
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#49744 - 09/22/05 04:00 AM
Re: Pay extra to protect your home from fire?
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dedicated member
Registered: 03/25/04
Posts: 128
Loc: North Central IL
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Arney, do yourself and your family a favor and get out of California before it is too late. Save the money you would have spent on the hydrant adapter and buy some gas for the car and go.
_________________________
If only closed minds came with closed mouths.
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#49745 - 09/27/05 04:34 PM
Re: Pay extra to protect your home from fire?
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 09/15/05
Posts: 2485
Loc: California
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If anyone is interested, the original news article about the non-standard hydrant fittings seems to have generated some attention. Here's a follow-up article on the SFFD chief's proposal. Basically, he wants to fabricate an additional 1,000 adapters, and store them at four strategic locations along the freeways leading into San Francisco for distribution to fire crews as they arrive into the city. Seems slightly less problematic than the current situation where there's a stockpile of extra adapters in ONE warehouse. But still, in a massive disaster like an earthquake, where far flung agencies will dispatch help, there's no guarantee that the freeways will even be passable. And once outside agencies start pouring in through side streets, what then? Again, I'm not talking about the surrounding jurisdictions where adapters have already been distributed. I'm talking about the chaotic situation after a massive disaster where fire crews from outside the mutual aid agencies start arriving from every which way. If NO is any example, city agencies will have no communications beyond runners for at least a couple days and difficulty just moving about the city. Seems like they're making a big assumption that those four points are where the incoming responders will pass through. Anyways, the saga continues...
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