Why are Chesapeake's Fire Hydrant Colors Changing?Do you ever wonder why fire hydrants are painted the colors they are? For many years now the City of Chesapeake has painted the lower part of fire hydrants a reflective silver to assist the Fire Department in locating them, especially at night. The tops of the hydrants were color coded based on the flow of the hydrant under normal operating conditions expressed in gallons per minute.The City of Chesapeake’s Fire Marshall’s Office has requested that the hydrants match that of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards for color-coding according to flow. The National standard for the body colors of the hydrants is a chrome yellow; however, silver is still recognized as a standard color.
Therefore, municipal hydrant body color will continue to be silver. The tops or caps of the hydrants are going to change and will be painted according to flow on the hydrant at 20 pounds per square inch of pressure (psi).NFPA 291 - Standard Color Codes for Flow at 20 P.S.I.
Are as follows:CLASS CLESS THAN 500 GPMREDCLASS B500-999 GPMORANGECLASS A1000-1499 GPMGREENCLASS AA1500 GPM & ABOVELIGHT BLUENFPA recommends that the bodies of municipal hydrants, private hydrants, and non-potable hydrants be distinctively color coded. The NFPA standard calls for private hydrants to be red. Chesapeake’s Fire Department requires that the lower barrel be red and the bonnet painted to meet the NFPA standard as well.The most important thing is consistency in our approach so the Fire Department knows what the capacity of each hydrant is and whether it belongs to the municipality or not.So if over the coming months you see those colors changing, you will know that we are hard at work doing maintenance and testing.If you have questions regarding the process, please feel free to contact: Pennie L. Simmons, Water Distribution Superintendent at 382-3406.Public Utilities e-mail address.
Dec 20, 2017 Red, yellow, violet— fire hydrants come in many different colors. But it's not for decoration. These colors have an important meaning that could just save your life one day. Fire hydrant color meaning changes based on area. Orange and black striped is 250 gallons or below. And solid orange signifies an out of service hydrant. There are 83 of those hydrants right now, less than one percent. News 10 asked why every hydrant isn't the same, 'The water system is different ages in different cities, different parts of the city have different size mains.'
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