Hydrant Project in St J

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Created on Saturday, 26 March 2022 12:53

Written by Alek Wolfe

ST. JOHNSBURY - Folks in the town of St. Johnsbury may have noticed that some of the fire hydrants have been out of service for a few months. According to the St. Johnsbury fire department, they are not in just one location but many.

"We had a fire on Railroad street this past winter where we had a couple hydrants that didn't work. And they were very close to the building so we had to kind of reach out a little further to get our water," St. Johnsbury Fire Chief Bradley Reeds said.

Reeds says this issue is what caused them to start looking at the issue more often. Once the ground is ready, the fire department will begin tests to figure out exactly whitch ones don't work. Right now, 12 hydrants have been ordered and recently, the town gave approval for 12 more. However, it's unclear at this time exactly how many need replacements.

"I expect that when the fire department starts checking individual hydrants, we'll probably identify more that need to be replaced which is why we ordered some additional ones," St. J Town Manager Chad Whitehead said.

Whitehead says that the additional hydrants will be here in May and hopefully by then, the fire department and St. Johnsbury public works can start working on installations. And while hydrants may be a crucial part to putting out fires, in the meantime, Chief Reeds and Whitehead both feel that the town is well equip incase of any emergency until the updates can begin.

"Generally speaking they've got about 3 thousand gallons of water on the trucks when they show up to a fire. They go to the truck first and then as back ups show up they start stretching lines to hydrants. As trucks show up, we get more water to the sight," Whitehead said.

The project is expected to start in mid May and go into June.