An October 1st fire in Adams Morgan burned for seven hours while firefighters struggled to find adequate water volume in the District of Columbia’s water mains, according to fire officials. This incident, along with an April fire in Georgetown, has exposed the poor condition of the District’s water mains, and the questionable actions of the agency that maintains them.
D.C. Fire Department officials and council members say that the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority, a partially independent agency responsible for the city’s water services, failed to provide the DCFD with clear information on working water pipes.
“The Fire Department is provided with general maps with all the fire hydrants, with what the pressure is and things of that nature,” Jason Yuckenberg, Public Information Officer and spokesman for Councilman Jim Graham, said. “In practice the maps are … not something you can just pull out of your pocket and interpret.”
WASA chief engineer John T. Dunn testified that the Wednesday after the fire in the in the four story condominium in Adams Morgan, the fire hydrants were functioning at a sufficient capacity.
“We are going to work together and put together a program that will better serve the residents in the districts,” Michele Quander-Collins, Public Affairs Director of WASA, said.
On April 30th, firefighters could not put out a fire at the Georgetown Public Library due to malfunctioning fire hydrants WASA had failed to notify them about, Battalion Chief Kenneth Crosswhite said.
According to Crosswhite, all hydrants, both private and public, have been tested for function by the fire department in the wake of the Georgetown Library blaze. Fire officials discovered more hydrants were broken than WASA had initially disclosed.
“There were more non-functioning hydrants than WASA said [were] out there,” he said. “There was a big surprise about the number of hydrants out of service that need repairs.”
Crosswhite confirmed that all hydrants on university campuses, including Georgetown, are functional. Georgetown University’s campus has both public and private hydrants.
“The fire hydrants on campus are tested annually by an outside firm,” University Spokesperson Julie Green Bataille wrote in an e-mail. “Georgetown maintains the physical infrastructure of pipes and water mains on campus and relies on WASA for the water itself.”
