WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

I raise the question:

I recently was in attendance of a structure fire where two Pumps & LT's attended. About 15mins in I had an officer run up to me asking if I knew where the closest Fire Hydrant was which was pointed out to him. With a thanks, he casually mentioned "The Hydrants don't work in there"

So it boils down to two questions:

- Public Hydrants [Found on the street] are they maintained by each Station on a regular basis to make sure that they are functioning?

- Private Hydrants [Found inside business, i.e Commerical Properties] are they the responsibility of the commercial owners? If so, is there a rule / law that they have to be checked on a regular basis and do FRS do any checks on these?

Street hydrants are supplied and major maintenance by Water Corp (leaks, broken, moving, signage) and checked/basic maintenance by FRS (painting, access, cats eyes etc).

Private are up to the property owner.

The ones on military bases in WA are maintained by subcontractors.

You should be able to see a little yellow tag on hydrants/hose reels/extinguishers within buildings showing they have been checked. I'm pretty sure it is a legal requirement for the building manager to get these checked too.

fire hose in our building was checked by fesa 6-7 years ago, the only ppl checking now are the insurers for the building who send an assessor around once in a while to make sure its accessible.
fesa actually rolled it and checked it worked and punched the yellow tag.

written_ficton wrote:
- Public Hydrants [Found on the street] are they maintained by each Station on a regular basis to make sure that they are functioning?

- Private Hydrants [Found inside business, i.e Commerical Properties] are they the responsibility of the commercial owners? If so, is there a rule / law that they have to be checked on a regular basis and do FRS do any checks on these?

- Public hydrants are maintained by local stations with any defects being sent in to FESA to be logged and sent on to Watercorp.

- Private hydrants are too looked at by FRS stations during building inspections, however the responsibility of maintaing these is to the landowner.

clueless wrote:

written_ficton wrote:
- Public Hydrants [Found on the street] are they maintained by each Station on a regular basis to make sure that they are functioning?

- Private Hydrants [Found inside business, i.e Commerical Properties] are they the responsibility of the commercial owners? If so, is there a rule / law that they have to be checked on a regular basis and do FRS do any checks on these?

- Public hydrants are maintained by local stations with any defects being sent in to FESA to be logged and sent on to Watercorp.

- Private hydrants are too looked at by FRS stations during building inspections, however the responsibility of maintaing these is to the landowner.

- any Hydrants outside of a gazetted fire district are checked by the local BFB (brigade) then if repairs required request sent to local shire

obzelite wrote:fire hose in our building was checked by fesa 6-7 years ago, the only ppl checking now are the insurers for the building who send an assessor around once in a while to make sure its accessible.
fesa actually rolled it and checked it worked and punched the yellow tag.

Do you mean ' Layflat ' or ' Hose Reel '.. 2 different items.. one is not fixed to the building, the other is..

All hose reels and portable fire equipment needs to be tested 6 monthly.. the yellow tag is a ROS and identifies that the gear has been tested.

All extinguishers should be tested 6 monthly.

I wasnt aware FESA was out testing hose reels.. I think you might be mistaken.. most service companies like CHUBB, WORMALD, HECS and the various others out there - they conduct onsite inspection and testing services for portable and building fire suppression equipment.
( FESA dont even test their own gear, they send it off site to a service company.. why would you ? it's cheaper to have someone else do the work at the end of the day.. )