6 months ago
WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- The DC Fire & EMS Department is apparently finally going to get information from the DC Water & Sewer Authority that was requested after a major fire almost two-years-ago. Mayor Adrian Fenty said this morning that following last week's fire on Chain Bridge Road firefighters will now be able to tell which hydrant's are on connected to specific water mains.
In a preliminary report into the water supply problems in the July 29 fire a deadline has been given to WASA to supply that information:
WASA has made significant progress producing an application that overlays hydrants onto the District's water main system with a GIS application. Doing so will provide F&EMS with electronic information about what mains hydrants are on, as well as the size of the mains, information that is currently only available on paper counter maps. Prior to the Chain Bridge fire, this upgrade of the GIS system was scheduled to be completed in November 2009. WASA has now committed to completing the upgrade by August 31, 2009.
As they did in the 2007 fire on Adams Mill Road firefighters complained they did not know where to go to get an adequate flow to put the fire out at the home of former school board president Peggy Cooper Cafritz. After both fires Chief Dennis Rubin said it was trial and error trying to find the right combination of hydrants and mains. In the 2007 fire Chief Rubin said it took two-and-a-half-hours and in last week's fire firefighters worked for two-hours to get a consistent water supply.
Chief Rubin is on vacation and was not at this morning's press conference.
Consultant J. Gordon Routley identified this problem after the Adams Mill Road fire saying in his 76-page report:
The water system maps that are available to DC Fire & EMS Department are out of date and very difficult to read. It is almost impossible to determine which hydrants are supplied by large mains from these maps.
Sources familiar with the investigation, but not authorized to speak publicly, say that the fire department had the same type of inadequate mapping available for the Chain Bridge Road fire.
The sources indicate that the problem with inadequate water mains isn't going to go away, but the fire department needs to have the tools to react better when confronted with similar situations.
As 9NEWS NOW reported on Tuesday the department is now partially implementing another recommendation from the 2007 report. Two water supply companies with 4-inch hose will be staffed and respond on all initial reports of fires in parts of Northwest Washington and anywhere east of the Anacostia River.
The 2007 report called for all six water supply companies to be staffed. A department spokesman says many other recommendations from the 2007 report have been implemented by the department. Chief Rubin previously said funding had been an issue for the water supply companies. At the moment overtime money is being used to supply a driver/operator for the water supply engines in Adams Morgan and at the firehouse on Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast.
The Routley report was not presented in a public hearing to the City Council's Committee on Public Works and the Environment looking into the Adams Mill Road fire. That report called the water supply infrastructure of the city "questionable".
Since Wednesday WUSA has been attempting to get the fire department to supply a list of areas in the city known to have water supply issues similar to Chain Bridge Road and Adams Mill Road. The report released today does not list those locations but says that WASA and the fire department are working on the known problem areas:
The two agencies also continued to meet on a monthly basis and to formulate contingency and pre-fire planning for an additional 34 areas identified by F&EMS.
One fire department source said they are more concerned about the areas they don't know which could crop up with the city's aging water system infrastructure.
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