SAFD report explains garage hydrant failure

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SAFD report explains garage hydrant failure

By Ryan Johnston

Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: News

Originally published: 4/10/08 at 7:11 PM CST
Last update: 4/10/08 at 8:09 PM CST

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Media Credit: D.A. James

Firefighter D. Kyrisch watches as firefighter G. Garza tries to put out a car fire with a fire extinguisher March 5 on the fifth floor of the parking garage. The water supply in the garage did not have enough pressure, so a hose had to be extended to a hydrant one block away.

The San Antonio Fire Department found that the pressure in the fire hydrant closest to the parking garage had low pressure, resulting in a delayed reaction to putting out a car fire March 5.

Fire hydrants should have 90 pounds per square inch of pressure, or PSI, however, the hydrant the SAFD attempted to use only had 45 PSI, which caused the fire suppressant system in the garage to be unsuccessful.

At the time of the fire, SAFD was unsuccessful in determing what caused the drop in pressure.

A black Prius that caught fire was parked on the ramp leading up to the fifth floor of the garage.

A total of 18 portable fire extinguishers were collected from the parking garage, other buildings on campus and used by SAFD because of the malfunction with the hydrant.

At about 10:30 a.m. SAFD connected a water hose to the fire hydrant located at Park Avenue and Howard Street, which is 50 yards south of the parking garage, that was fully functional.

After the fire had been cleared, district safety coordinator Roy Brown contacted Capt. Dennis Rodriguez, chief fire inspector for SAFD, and told him his concerns regarding the malfunction of the fire hydrant.

On March 6, SAFD conducted an inspection of the fire hydrant, which revealed the fire hydrant to be fully operational and without any defects.

The dry fire suppressant system installed in the parking garage is a Class 1 manual dry standpipe system.

To operate the system, it must be connected directly to a fire truck and the fire truck connected to the hydrant.

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