Houston gives fake fire hydrant a serial number

[jeff of pa]

HOUSTON (AP) -- Houston city workers mistakenly thought a fake fire hydrant was the real thing, painted it blue and gave it a serial number. But the homeowner realized the mistake and contacted the city. Debbie Vogelsang told KPRC-TV that she was concerned that painting the old hydrant in the city's colors could cause dangerous confusion during a fire.

Her boyfriend, Brian Smith, bought the surplus fire hydrant at a garage sale three years ago, painted it red and plopped it next to his palm trees.

But a Houston maintenance worker last week repainted it yellow and blue and added a serial number.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...RANT?SITE=PAPOE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

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[stefen]

Placing a fake hydrant within a public right-of-way is plain stupid...

What if there was an actual fire and the FD connected a hose and no water...

Better to find out now then when a catastrophe happens.

 

[cdltpx]

Stefen I looked up the article rather than just replying to something blindly. In the article there is a photograph of the hydrant it is contained in the homeowners garden and is what I would call art.
The city worker should have tested the fire hydrant prior to painting nothing to it I have done it hundreds of times as a road construction worker. The city worker was considering running pipe to the hydrant? No wonder the government can't make it on the taxes we give them they have shxt for brains running things. Sure he probably would not have gotten so far as laying pipe bc he would need a permit. But you never know he might have pull and go outside the normal realm and do things his way and cost the tax payers a few thousand dollars due to a lack of communication and an inability to distinguish the difference between art and public works.

If you had a bad rating on your fire insurance just buy an old hydrant place it where you think it will help and hope the government might come along and provide service to it and improve your rating.

 

[stefen]

Stefen I looked up the article rather than just replying to something blindly. In the article there is a photograph of the hydrant it is contained in the homeowners garden and is what I would call art.

Thank you for bringing that to my attention...

I stand corrected...generally, news articles do not tell the whole story...of which I relied blindly...

 

[cdltpx]

Even when we get the story we don't get the story due to the prospective of the person writing. I say no harm no foul in this case a paint jockey started a chain that almost led to potentially providing service to a lawn ornament. And while it isn't my city or money it gets you to thinking a little more to saying yes to every tax that pops up.
For instance we have expansion to the point of booming schools are being constructed as we speak. My opinion is that we should build dome schools for too many reasons to list. Read the story by goggling "MDI domes schools" they will explain in detail how building these structures will save so much money that the savings would pay for the entire project. Domes use 1/3 the energy of traditional structures, withstand 300mph winds ,are fire, lightening, disaster resistant. These buildings can be constructed in less than a year no matter the weather BC the shell is the first thing to be erected.
I can't get through to them to build these structures even though the savings are this great.