How far can you park from a fire hydrant in Texas?

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asked Nov 19, 2021 in Law Enforcement/Police by 334topi (950 points)
How far can you park from a fire hydrant in Texas?

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answered Nov 23, 2021 by achmyouse (2,360 points)
In Texas your vehicle must be parked at least 15 feet away from a fire hydrant in Texas.

The further away you are from the fire hydrant the better so that fire departments can access the fire hydrant easily.

Whether your vehicle has an occupant in or not, you are not allowed to park or stand a vehicle in front of a public or private driveway.

You have to be at least 15 feet away from a fire hydrant and 20 feet away from a crosswalk at an intersection.

By law a vehicle must be parked at least 16 feet or more from a fire hydrant.

It is illegal to park within 15 feet of a fire hydrant or within 30 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection.

You cannot park within 30 feet of a traffic signal or stop sign either.

You need to make sure that you are not parked within 20 feet of a fire station, or 75 feet if it is posted by the fire department.

A purple fire hydrant means the water coming into that fire hydrant is from reclaimed water that is not safe for drinking.

Normally they are painted purple to show the fire department and other users the hydrant piping is on a “ reclaimed “ water system ( not safe for drinking ) instead of the regular “potable or drinking “ water pipes.

A white fire hydrant means the fire hydrant is a public system fire hydrant.

Yellow for a Private hydrant connected to a public water system.

Red for a special operations hydrant, meaning it's for special purposes and situations only.

Violet to suggest that the water is non-potable.

The fire hydrant was invented by a man named Birdshill Holly.

Birdsill Holly is the man who invented a system to supply water to cities without reservoirs or standpipes, and to extinguish fires through a system of hydrants that eliminated the need to equip fire engines with water tanks.

Holly who invented the fire hydrant was born in Auburn, New York, where his common school education ended at age eight.

Birdsill Holly Jr. was an American mechanical engineer and inventor of water hydraulics devices.

He is known for inventing mechanical devices that improved city water systems and patented an improved fire hydrant that is similar to those used currently for firefighting.

However, credit for inventing the first fire hydrant system is often given to Frederick Graff, Sr.

We do know for a fact that he created the first pillar fire hydrant in 1801.

Painting a fire hydrant is not illegal unless you paint it a different color than it should be.

If you were to repaint the fire hydrant the same color then it would not be illegal to do so but if you paint the fire hydrant a different color then you could get into trouble.

However with approval some people have painted fire hydrants like animals such as dogs.

The minimum flow rate for a fire hydrant is 500 gpm although some fire hydrants may have a flow rate of 1,000 gpm to as much as 1,500 gpm.

The typical water pressure at a fire hydrant is 20 PSI which is the same water pressure as your home.

The fire trucks pump when connected to the fire hydrant then increases the pressure to 100 PSI or more to fight the fire.

A fire hydrant costs between $1,500.00 to as much as $3,000.00 for the fire hydrant and then with the cost of the fire hydrant and the installation it can range from $3,000.00 to $7,000.00

Firefighters need to know the flow rates of fire hydrants to know which fire hydrants to connect to to have enough water supply for the size of fire they are fighting.

Larger fires need more water supply to fight off the fire while smaller fires can be fought and put out using lower flow rate fire hydrants.

Fire hydrants are connected to the drinking water supply.

The fire hydrants are connected to the same water supply pipes that you get your water from for your home.

A fire hydrant puts out 499 gallons of water per minute and a fire trucks pump increases that pressure.

And some fire hydrants can put out as much as 1,000 GPM to as much as 1,500 GPM.

A red fire hydrant signifies that it is known to flow up to 499 gallons per minute (gpm).

All fire hydrants are red when they are first installed, and then the fire department will test the flow of a new hydrant to determine how much water it is capable of producing.

Fire hydrants don't ever run out of water since fire hydrants are connected to the public water supply.

As long as the public water supply such as the water tower and the well or water source the water is coming from has plenty of water then the fire hydrant will never run out of water.

Fire departments also keep a tanker truck full of water to be ready to begin fighting a fire and in case there's no water supply locally.

But when a fire truck is connected to a fire hydrant connected to the water supply the fire department has plenty of water to fight the fire.

However there are also some fire hydrants known as dry fire hydrants which are just a pipe that is buried in the ground and pulls water from a lake or other reservoir.

So if that lake or reservoir runs out of water then the fire hydrant would run out of water.

But water from fire hydrants that are in cities and towns have plenty of water under pressure being sent through them and the fire trucks pump increases the water pressure to help fight the fire.

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