Because if your house catches fire with you in it, you want the firemen to be inside your house putting the fire out with an established water supply, not outside pissing away time digging the hydrant out of the snow/ice.
The common standard for the height of the center of a fire hydrants outlet is about 18 inches from the ground. The radius from that center point to the bottom of the outlet is 2.5 inches which is where body of the coupler will be, plus some room for the 3-4” handles attached to either side of the coupler body to be able to turn to thread the coupler onto the outlet. So that’s about 11” of clearance to the ground you’d need plus a few extra inches of some extra room added for your hands/arms or the fact that over time hydrants can kinda “sink” into the ground diminishing the clearance further.
If your local fire department uses a 4 way hydrant valve to connect to the hydrant for uninterruptible in-line boosting like this one
Then that’s a bunch of extra clearance you’ll need.
And then there’s just the fact that the less snow there is, the easier it is for them to just clear away themselves.
8” isn’t an exact number as much as it is a ballpark for when snowfall around a hydrant goes from a minor pain in the ass to becoming a potential safety issue.
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Because if your house catches fire with you in it, you want the firemen to be inside your house putting the fire out with an established water supply, not outside pissing away time digging the hydrant out of the snow/ice.
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 2 weeks ago
It would take over 2 ft of snow to get close to the hydrant outlet around here. I was curious why was 8" set as a trigger.
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The common standard for the height of the center of a fire hydrants outlet is about 18 inches from the ground. The radius from that center point to the bottom of the outlet is 2.5 inches which is where body of the coupler will be, plus some room for the 3-4” handles attached to either side of the coupler body to be able to turn to thread the coupler onto the outlet. So that’s about 11” of clearance to the ground you’d need plus a few extra inches of some extra room added for your hands/arms or the fact that over time hydrants can kinda “sink” into the ground diminishing the clearance further.
If your local fire department uses a 4 way hydrant valve to connect to the hydrant for uninterruptible in-line boosting like this one
Image
Then that’s a bunch of extra clearance you’ll need.
And then there’s just the fact that the less snow there is, the easier it is for them to just clear away themselves.
8” isn’t an exact number as much as it is a ballpark for when snowfall around a hydrant goes from a minor pain in the ass to becoming a potential safety issue.
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 2 weeks ago
That’s the kind of thorough explanation I pay the internet for. Thank you!