North Bloomfield residents Randall Strossen and his wife Elizabeth Hammond recently added a 3,000 gallon fire suppression tank to their property. Then, Randall took the idea to his neighbors. “I wrote about a dozen neighbors, explained we were doing this. I said, you know, if anyone else has got a tank or pool or pond or something they can throw in for this dry hydrant idea, let’s do that.” One of his neighbors replied, “I’d like to throw my 32,000 gallon pool into the mix.” Now, Strosser wants to spread the concept all over the county.
“A dry hydrant can take the form of water tanks, ponds, swimming pools, etcetera. In our area, anything we can have on the ready is a huge plus,” Strossen said during our interview.
The dry hydrant concept makes use of existing water storage and the cost to install it is comparatively cheap. Acquiring and installing their 3,000 gallon tank was around $7,000 and that is approximately the cost of installing the dry hydrant for the 32,000-gallon pool, Strossen said.
“An unbelievable bargain,” Strossen said. “When you do a storage tank, it comes out to over $2 a gallon. When you do a dry hydrant pulling from an existing source of water, you’re so far under a dollar, it’s unbelievable. So it’s really the way to go. People can tap into swimming pools or ponds. Sure, there’s some work involved. There are regulations and there’s some construction, but it’s all very doable.”
Strossen is a fierce advocate for fire safety. Active in the Harmony FireWise Community, he believes in the importance of vegetation management, “But that’s not the whole solution to our fire threat problems in Nevada County. We’ve done a lot of vegetation management. We need to put some muscle into other things that are important for fire suppression and prevention,” he told us during our interview. He recalled a structure fire in the area in January of 2017, where engines had to drive back to Coyote Street to replenish their water reservoirs. “If this had been in the summer,” he shuddered. “That’s the kind of situation we can avoid. Now, we’ve got water in that area, and there’s so many other locations that could do the same thing.”
Once installation was complete, Nevada County Consolidated’s Fire Marshal Patrick Mason added both Strossen’s tank and the pool location on firefighters’ maps and GPS. Firefighters need to be able to locate water sources fitted with compatible hardware during emergencies, often at night or in heavy smoke. Out of the area firefighters needs access to the same information when supporting the local resources.
The Fire Marshal’s help was invaluable, Strossen insisted. “He was so helpful, and there are detailed construction plans for dry hydrants. People also have to consider the fire engines or the water tenders, need road access and room to turn around.” He suggests anyone interested talk to their local fire district and he’s more than happy to share what he learned. “My bottom line here is that, you know, it’s fabulous that we got this done, but what I really hope is going to come out of this is that this example will inspire other people to do the same thing. Because we’ve got a model now that can be replicated, be duplicated all over the county. It’s very fast, it’s very inexpensive. And sure, it’d be lovely if we could have NID hydrants all over, but look, that’s just not realistic. These dry hydrants give our firefighters a tool they’ve never had before.”
Harmony FireWise Community
Some 50 homes are part of the Harmony FireWise Community. Their concern was the dearth of fire hydrants along N. Bloomfield Rd. The last NID hydrant going toward the river is located near Bernard Place, and an additional hydrant is located at the top of Cedar View Rd., adjacent to the NID tanks, according to Terry Hastings with the Harmony Firewise Community.
“Thanks to persistence and hard work by Randall and Josh, firefighters now have an additional source of water to quickly contain fires. The project benefits our neighborhood and Firewise community, but also residences further out N. Bloomfield. Many individuals and a few Firewise communities in Nevada County have installed emergency water tanks, but they hold less water and are more expensive to install. We believe this could be a model for other Nevada County neighborhoods/Firewise communities,” Hastings said.