A valve wasn’t open all the way?
Low flow from fire hydrants that had plagued the Ridgefield Knolls area is no longer the worry it was — for years, dating back, at least, to the fire that destroyed a home on Seth Low Mountain Road in 2007.
And a big reason is a valve that workers discovered, not fully open, after Bridgeport-based Aquarion Water Co. bought the Topstone Hydraulic Co. and began cleaning up problems with the small neighborhood water system.
“The major discovery that has allowed an improvement of service and water pressure was the discovery of a valve located along the main that was not open entirely,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said.
“In fact, it appeared that the valve itself had not been located or opened or closed in many years,” he said. “So that discovery definitely increased pressure to the hydrants.”
The forgotten valve was at the top of the hill on Aspen Ledges Road, Mr. Marconi said.
Fire Chief Heather Burford said the improvement in the pressure at the hydrants is significant for firefighting.
“That’s a 275,000-gallon tank up there, and we feel very comfortable we have enough water sources,” Chief Burford told the selectmen, meeting May 15 as the town Fire Commission.
The water system in the area serves 412 residences, and includes 12 fire hydrants, “none of which we could actually use,” Chief Burford told the selectmen.
In 2011, Aquarion Water Co., the big Bridgeport-based firm serving more than 600,000 people in 47 Connecticut towns and cities, took over the Topstone Hydraulic Co. and the Ridgefield Knolls water system.
Aquarion has done a lot to improve the system.
“We’re all very fortunate that Aquarion has taken over the ownership of Topstone Hydraulic,” Mr. Marconi said. “… Emergency power has been installed at the pump station, at the well, which is huge priority alone.”
Chief Burford said in an interview last week that Aquarion has been working throughout the system.
“The way the system is, there’s a well field that has five well pumps in it off Bennett’s Farm Road. Those five well pumps feed a tank up at the top of Old Stagecoach that stores 200,000 gallons of water. That tank, because it’s elevated, then feeds the domestic water system into people’s homes, and also the hydrants, through a combination of gravity and a pump system they have up at the tank.
“… Aquarion put a significant amount of work into the well fields, the tank and hydrants themselves,” Chief Burford said.
“When they were done with the work they asked us to come out and see for ourselves the improvements,” she said. “And that was important to us, because we have such a long history of not using those hydrants.”
As on a frigid night in February 2007.
“That’s the perfect example, the Twixt Hills fire that was on Seth Low Mountain,” Chief Burford said.
“In that case, we set up portable water, understanding we were not going to be able to get the amount of water we needed to put out that fire from the hydrant system.”
The memory is vivid.
“That was a fully involved structure fire. It was five degrees. There were winds blowing 25 miles per hour. The home was located at the top of the hill. And it was 25% involved upon arrival and within minutes it was fully involved — very hard to contain.”
The Fire Department has long been aware of the hydrant system’s shortcomings.
“For years, if not decades, the Fire Department has known those hydrants to be unusable for reliable fire protection,” Chief Burford said.
“Under the old system, we had identified two hydrants that could be used to supplement our portable water system — when I say ‘portable’ I mean tankers, fire tankers, bringing water in,” she said.
“… So the policy up in the Topstone area for water supply has been similar to the policy for the whole north end of town, which has no hydrants, which is to rely on portable water, water we bring to scenes.
“We had identified two hydrants — one at Ridgebury School and one other — that we said, ‘OK, these hydrants have sufficient flow and water pressure to be able to be used to supplement our tanker shuttles. But even those two we did not consider the primary water system.
“Even the hydrant in front of the firehouse was unusable for fire protection, and we found that out during the fatal fire on Hawthorne Hill.”
Chief Burford catalogued improvements Aquarion has made.
“There’s a new backup generator at the well field. All five wells have new pump motors, they’ve replaced all of the well pumps,” she said, “… and they’ve replaced most of the pipe in the wells.
“Up at the tank, they’ve done a few things as wall. They improved the pumps at the tank. They have installed a propane backup generator up there as well. …
“They said eventually the entire system will be electronically connected and monitored remotely from their offices,” Chief Burford said.
“Since that hasn’t happened yet, they make daily stops at both the well field and at the tank.”
Under state law the town pays water companies for fire protection service. According to Jerry Gay of the town finance department, the town pays both per hydrant and by the length of pipe the company has feeding hydrants. He said the town had long paid Topstone Hydraulic about $18,000 a year for the Knolls area’s 12-hydrant system.
Aquarion’s main system, which has some 338 hydrants throughout the village area, costs in the vicinity of $300,000 a year, he said.
Chief Burford said that after Aquarion did the work on the Topstone hydrants, it invited the Fire Department to test them.
“Aquarion had done what’s called hydrant flow testing on all of the hydrants, and that’s where they evaluate the hydrant for its flow in terms of volume, and the pressure that it can maintain, and they presented us with all of the documentation.
“And then we went out and tested for ourselves,” she said.
“We physically went out and worked with various hydrants in the system, meaning we connected engine two to the hydrants and flowed water, large amounts of water, to see for ourselves if the pressure and volume were remaining constant. And they were.
“So at that point, the internal policy changed, and all members of the department have been notified that those hydrants can be used for the purpose of fighting fires.”