San Francisco Hydrants
I've known that some cities have different types of hydrants and hose threads. I haven't considered this issue in light of the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina.
Here is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle (via FirefightingNews.com). It discusses the problems that may arise in San Francisco because other city's firefighting units won't be able to hook up to San Fran's hydrants.
If a big earthquake hits San Francisco and flames spread through the city, firefighters rushing in from elsewhere to help will encounter what could be a major problem -- their hoses will not fit the city's hydrants.It has been 14 years since a similar predicament contributed to the spread of the Oakland hills fire, in which 25 people died and 2,699 homes were lost. After dozens of firefighters from surrounding agencies found that their hoses couldn't be attached to Oakland's hydrants, state lawmakers required that all cities in California adopt a standard connection size by 1994.
San Francisco, however, successfully lobbied to be exempted from the law, and city fire officials say they have no plans to change their hydrants to fit the state's standard size. Instead, they are following a model that caused problems in the 1991 Oakland fire, planning to hand out adapters to out-of-town fire crews so they can connect their standard 2 1/2-inch hoses to San Francisco's 3-inch hydrant openings.
This could really be a big problem. It seems a little shortsighted of the city since they have already had troubles in Oakland in 1991.
