Fire Hydrants

Overview

The City has maintains approximately 6200 hydrants. Fire hydrants are designed to provide high volume flow for fire suppression, and are located throughout the City so that every building structure has one readily available for its protection. While the primary use function of a hydrant is fire protection, they also serve many valuable secondary uses, including water main flushing to help maintain water quality throughout the distribution system, water for construction and film industry activities, providing temporary servicing to properties during water main shutdowns, providing emergency potable water in the event of an earthquake, and serving as a blowdown for draining transmission pipelines.

The City uses a colour coding scheme to identify the flow capacity of hydrants. This system allows the Fire Department to quickly decide which and how many hydrants they need to connect to. The number on the tag is a unique identifier for that hydrant. The City is repainting and tagging all its hydrants. It used to paint the bonnet. Now we use coloured tags.

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Fire Hydrant Leaks & Maintenance

To ensure functionality for Fire Department use, as well as to limit lost water due to leakage, hydrants require regular maintenance. Hydrant maintenance generally includes an inspection to ensure functionality, followed by the replacement of any parts that are not performing as needed. The City inspects every hydrant on a regular, scheduled basis, alternating between two different types of inspections.

If you notice a hydrant that appears to be leaking please call to report this situation. You will need to provide the location of the hydrant and providing your contact information would be helpful. If you noticed which side of the street the hydrant, the block number or intersection as well as the decal number of the hydrant that would be helpful. There is a valve box located in line with the hydrant. This is used to control water flow to the hydrant. If the valve lid is missing or leaking please report this to .

You will be asked to describe the severity of the leak. This will assist the Waterworks Branch in allocating resources to this task. For example, is water flowing at a trickle, is the water coming out at the rate of a garden hose or is there a large volume of water coming from the base of the hydrant (for example gushing into the air). If you suspect the hydrant has been hit by a motor vehicle, the City will need to know this information as well.

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Fire Hydrant MVA (motor vehicle accident)

If you have been involved in (or witnessed) a motor vehicle accident involving a fire hydrant, please call to report the incident. See the Fire Hydrant MVA page for more information.

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Location of Fire Hydrants

The location of all fire hydrants can be seen by displaying them in VanMap. When you start VanMap, tick the box on the left hand side called 'Water'. This will turn on the water layer. You will need to zoom in several times until you get to the layer that displays fire hydrants. They show up as red or blue dots. A red hydrant icon indicates that this hydrant is for 'fire use only'. A blue hydrant icon indicates that a hydrant use permit may be issued for this hydrant. If you hover your mouse over the dot you will see an identifier. This is the identifier used by the City to identify this asset. http://vancouver.ca/vanmap/index.htm

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Fire Hydrant Status

When a fire hydrant has been hit by a car or 'taken out of commission' for repairs the Fire Department is immediately noticed that the hydrant is temporarily not available. As soon as the hydrant is in good working order the hydrant is 'put back in commission' and the Fire Department is notified of the update in status.

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Privately Owned Fire Hydrants

The City does not maintain privately owned fire hydrants. Some building have their own fire hydrants. If a non City owned hydrant is leaking or damaged the maintenance staff of that building should be notified.

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Replacement of Aging Hydrants

Currently, the City standard practice is to coordinate the replacement of an aging hydrant during the replacement of distribution mains, as the hydrant tends to be the same age as the distribution main and is nearing the end of its service life. Coordinating the aging hydrant work with distribution main replacement results in substantial savings in labour, equipment and surface restoration, while reducing the overall disruption of water system construction to the neighbourhood. Some hydrants are not maintainable and require replacement independent of the distribution main replacement program.

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Have you seen these Hydrants?

The DFPS (Dedicated Fire Protection System) includes fire hydrants. Hydrants are located at approximately one every street intersection that the pipeline passes through - to provide the most direct route to fires within the coverage area while limiting the reduction in street parking. You will see these hydrants in Kilsilano and the downtown core.

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