May 7, 2007 11:40 pm US/Central
Out Of Order: Broken Fire Hydrants Threaten Safety
Private Water Utility Operates 8,000 Hydrants In 32 Illinois Communities
by Dave Savini
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Imagine your house or children's school is on fire, but the fire hydrants can't be opened or have no water.
As CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini reports, out-of-order hydrants threaten many communities.
When fire fighters race to a scene, water should gush out. But the 2 Investigators found that many area hydrants can't be opened, some are cracked and one outside a Bolingbrook nursing home was frozen shut.
The 2 Investigators found others that have been out of service for months.
Some constantly drip, others are too low to the ground and still others are impossible to get open.
While testing hydrants with the fire marshal from the Warrenville Fire Protection District, the 2 Investigators found one that was empty. No water came out – a potentially life-threatening danger to the residents of the neighborhood.
And those are just a few of the 8,000 hydrants operated by a company called Illinois American Water -- the biggest private water utility in the nation.
It operates hydrants in eight local counties and 32 communities including Bolingbrook, Homer Glen, Mt. Prospect, Des Plaines, Orland Park, Glen Ellyn, Elgin, Wheaton and Lisle, where Sue Srail lives.
She fears for the safety of her children's schools.
"I tell them if there is a fire, make sure you get out of that school," Srail said.
In front of the Lisle Junior High School the hydrant has dangerously low water pressure. And the hydrant in front of Schieser Elementary was broken for at least two months.
The 2 Investigators caught up with an Illinois American Water crew in April. Instead of making repairs, they were sleeping in their truck.
"Clearly that type of behavior is not condoned or accepted by the company," said Karla Teasly president of Illinois American Water.
Teasley also responded to our findings of broken hydrants.
"We are working on ways to improving our response times as well as our ability to service our hydrants timely and we can definitely do better," she said/
That would mean faster fixes for hydrants like one in Bolingbrook, which company records say wasn't repaired for three months.
"We have absolutely an emergency situation," said Chief Tom Freeman of the Lisle-Woodridge Fire Protection District.
"This is something that should have been replaced immediately," Freeman said during an inspection of hydrants.
He took 2 Investigators on what he called an embarrassing tour.
Because a private company owns these hydrants, Freeman and other fire chiefs have no authority to order the company to fix them.
"I don't sleep at night," Freeman said.
He especially worries about the delay of fixing the school's hydrants.
The dead hydrant outside Susan Srail's son's elementary school was finally replaced, but not until after the 2 investigators exposed it.
"There was clearly delay but I truly believe that school was not in jeopardy," Teasley said.
"You would probably be better off to bucket brigade the water," Srail said.
How many hydrants are broken and unusable? Company officials wouldn't give 2 Investigators those records.
Teasley says millions of dollars have been -- and will continue to be -- spent upgrading the system.
They've also hired more hydrant repair crews.
In Tuesday's Naperville Sun, read more about what happened when another fire department found out the water company never warned them about broken hydrants.
The company says it's working on better communication with fire departments.
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