Deputy Fire Chief Explains Hydrant Confusion

In the comment section of an article about the numerous brush fires that fire and rescue personnel battled Saturday, the commanding officer at the largest of the six fire offers some clarity about the hydrants in that neighborhood.

A three-alarm fire at Occoquan Forest resulted in one unoccupied house destroyed and another slightly damaged. The fire involved more than 200 acres and also destroyed numerous outbuildings.

Deputy Chief Art Jordan was the commanding officer of this fire. He said the hydrants in the neighborhood are not for fire-fighting use, which explains why some residents saw some hydrants untapped.

Fire fighters did use some of the water from these hydrants that are only for neighborhood use, but stopped once they had the rural water supply filled.

Jordan said fire and rescue officials are aware of this and they have  procedures in place to make up for the lack of fire-fighting hydrants in the Occoquan Forest neighborhood.

To battle fires there, Jordan said fire fighters use a rural water supply. They set up fill sites at Split Rail and one at Greenway Court. Once the rural water supply was in operation, fire fighters had plenty of water to extinguish the fire.