DELMAR, Md. – The Town of Delmar recently discovered that 28 of the town’s 264 fire hydrants were no longer working, and now they are in the process of repairing them to restore safety in the community.
The town found that the fire hydrants were not working during a routine hydrant flushing in July. During a flushing, the town releases water from the fire hydrants to ensure water flow is adequate and available to firefighters, residents, and businesses. The issue is alarming to some Delmar neighbors.
“It’s crazy,” says Joy Mitchell, whose daughter lives right by one of the broken hydrants. “The fire hydrants are really important, especially if you have a fire or an emergency or something, and the fire company needs to come put out your house fire.
On Friday, we spoke to Delmar Town Manager Jeff Fleetwood who attributes the failing hydrants to aging infrastructure. The town has fixed 11 of the hydrants in the last two weeks. According to Fleetwood, some require food-grade grease, while others need small parts to be repaired. Two or three fire hydrants cannot be repaired and will need to be replaced by an outsourced vendor. In addition to locating the non-working hydrants, the town has covered them with black plastic bags until they’ve been repaired or replaced.
“All hydrants in the town are mapped, so we know where they’re at,” Fleetwood said. “All hydrants that were bagged are on that map. So that information has been shared with emergency services and also with town staff.”
The Delmar Fire Department was not aware of the broken hydrants before the town notified them after the flushing. However, the fire department says it relies mostly on its engine tanker for water supply and emergency services have not been impacted by the issue.
“What we do is we send out the engine tanker and then we’ll use our tanker,” said Delmar Assistant Fire Chief Joshua Joyner. “So the engine tanker has 3,000 gallons and the tanker has 4,000. So we have a total of 7,000 gallons that are initially coming out of the fire house.”
Fleetwood said the Town of Delmar is working quickly and diligently to restore the remaining 17 fire hydrants. They do not have an exact date for when the project will be completed.
