Notice from the Township of Lake of Bays
The District of Muskoka and the Huntsville/Lake of Bays Fire Department are implementing a consistent marking pattern for both district-maintained and privately-maintained fire hydrants across Muskoka.
All fire hydrants must be marked in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 291.
The NFPA 291 requires that all district maintained fire hydrants be painted yellow and all privately maintained fire hydrants be painted red. Additionally, the flow rate, meaning the amount of water per minute, will be indicated on the hydrant caps through a color-coding system (coloured caps or coloured reflective tabs). Fire hydrants capable of flowing 499 gallons per minute (GPM) or less will have red caps. Fire hydrants capable of flowing 500-999 GPM will have orange caps. Fire hydrants capable of flowing 1000-1499 GPM will have green caps. Fire hydrants capable of flowing 1500 GPM or more will have blue caps. The adoption of consistent fire hydrant markings will assist firefighters in identifying the location and condition of fire hydrants when responding to a fire emergency.
The fire department encourages the owners of privately maintained fire hydrants to contact the Huntsville/Lake of Bays Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Division with any questions regarding hydrant maintenance and marking. Inspectors from the fire department will contact owners between May and July 2024 to verify that the hydrants are maintained and marked accordingly.
Have questions? Conact Fire Prevention Officer Grant Murchison at 705-789-5201 and press 2, or email him at [email protected]
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A great idea, should have been implemented years ago.
One question, left out is any hint of who covers the cost of marking private hydrants. Are there any private hydrants in our area?
Regardless, the number of private hydrants must be small so why not instead of wasting time sending some fire department guy out to”look and educate” the owner of the hydrant. Why not just let the fire department, who have the necessary equipment I assume, come and test the private hydrant, then provide the colour coded caps and install them and tell the owner to paint the hydrant the right color before the end of July. Do this for free.
There cannot be many such hydrants so why not just do this and get the job done.
The way the article reads it sounds like a typical government, “inspect, search for “compliance” and threaten” job. The kind governments are really good at and the least likely to actually get the right thing done in an efficient manner. All these kinds of actions are mainly designed to move liability from government to someone else anyway.