Hydrant History: The World’s First Fire Hydrants Getting water out of the ground remained an unsolved problem in 1800, despite all the advances in underground infrastructure; firefighters had either to plunge buckets in the nearest cistern or dig down to perforate the wooden mains that conveyed water before metal pipes. Before the invention of hydrants, […]
We recently sat down with Jake Chavira, Water/Maintenance Supervisor for the City of La Palma, to record his Hydrant Guard Testimonial. Bottom line: if you live in the City of La Palma, you can rest assured that you have a skilled and dedicated team of water professionals making sure your water is safe, clean and available no matter what. At Hydrant Guard, we’re proud to be a part of that story.
Hydrant History: Founding Fathers & Firefighters The History of Philadelphia’s Union Fire Company Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Alexander Hamilton, Samuel Adams: what do they have in common? Yes, protecting home and hearth from the Redcoats and, as it happens, the red flames. The invigorating mixture of new cities and revolutionary fervor […]
Hydrant History: America’s First Fire Teams A Look at Colonial America’s Earliest Organizations, and New England’s First Paid Firefighter From bucket brigades to the first professional firefighter, early American settlers innovated fire protection to keep fire from consuming their growing cities. The first American settlement, Jamestown, was founded in 1607. Captain John Smith led […]
Hydrant History: The Great Fire of London of 1666 A Look at One of History’s Most Destructive Fires London in 1666 was a wooden city. Houses leaned up against each other like logs in a bonfire. Typical building materials were good tinder at best, or purely combustible at worst. Many of the city’s poor lived […]
Hydrant History: The Great Fire of Rome, 64 AD A Glimpse into Firefighting Tactics in the Roman Empire One of the first large fires of recorded history gives an example of how dramatically an urban landscape can change after demolition by flames. Like the California of today, Rome had been suffering years of drought […]
Hydrant History: Introduction A Series on the History of Firefighting, Fire and Water Reform, and Hydrant Technology Hydrant Guard is grateful for the work of water agencies and fire departments. Our above-grade check valves work with municipal water systems to provide a solution to hydrant shears. Those same water systems have evolved over centuries to […]
Melvin Plummer, founder of Hydrant Guard®, received the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of over 6500 hours of public service over the past five decades. The ceremony took place on September 10, 2022, in Inglewood CA. Recipients of the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award are honored by Americorps and Points of Light because their service […]
The Orange County Water Association (OCWA) 2022 Operator Expo held at the Rattlesnake Reservoir was well-attended by over 200 water operators from all over the Orange County region. It allowed Hydrant Guard to present directly to these front-line operators as it became apparent the majority had a familiarity and/or are currently in the process of […]
From a milestone functional test to a fantastic set of in-person events, 2022 is already a busy year for the Hydrant Guard team. Read on to find out what we’ve been up to, and what’s still to come in the summer season. Hydrant Guard Passes the Tests Walnut Valley Water District conducted a number of tests […]