Who is responsible for Fire Hydrants?

[written_ficton]

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?

[LighteningCrashes]

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.

[robbage]

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

[dlcat1]

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.

[obzelite]

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.

[clueless]

- 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.

[AVBFS]

- 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

[eukanuba]

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.. )