Call for more checking of out-of-order fire hydrants

Fears that faulty fire hydrants could prove costly in an emergency were aired by a local councillor this week.

Cllr Patrick McGowan was speaking at Monday's Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District meeting when he raised the issue. This was following recent reports of fire hydrants being out of order or having low pressure at Ballyboe, Convoy and Dromore, Killygordon. He said he wanted to know who is responsible for monitoring and repairing fire hydrants in each municipal district.

He was informed that the responsibility for the maintenance of fire hydrants rests with Irish Water or with a private entity where the fire hydrants are under the control of that entity.

He also heard that the maintenance of hydrants requires specific skill sets that would not be available within the fire service. Fire brigades carry out inspections of fire hydrants as part of their annual drill programme and a systematic system is in place for reporting fire hydrant defects that come to the attention of the Fire Service to Irish Water.

Cllr McGowan claimed there were problems with both when they were needed a couple of weeks ago

"I'm getting the same answer back from the head of the fire service that I got two years ago. It seems to be falling between two stools These are only two I know of but I'm sure there's a lot more."

He added he would like a more definite answer about this situation at their next meeting.

Director of economic development, emergency services and information systems, Garry Martin pointed out it was Irish Water's responsibility to manage

hydrants, not the council.

"We do have a system in place where each brigade area will inspect hydrants in their area and identify any dead hydrants and report them to Irish Water. If people are aware of dead hydrants in their area I am happy to take a message and pass it on as it's in our interests as well that they are live but we can't legally fix them, it's not our job," he said.