Left: Don’t forget to clear your gas, propane, and electric utility shut-off valves/connections. (Image cropped from photo on Facebook.)
More safety warnings. Some are prompted by updated forecasts. Another by learning about an incident close to home.
A friend had a scare this morning when her family woke up to a gas leak at their buried supply line. It made me realize one recent warning may have been overlooked by homeowners.
The Southborough Fire Department reminded that property owners are responsible for clearing utility shut-off valves/connections, including; natural gas, propane and electric. Of course, homeowners are property owners, too.
What you probably haven’t missed is warnings about roofs. But if you’ve been procrastinating dealing with it, it’s time to stop.
(It’s probably also time to make sure any drainage systems are clear.)
The National Weather Service is warning about snow coming in Saturday morning and turning to rain that night into Sunday. For details, click forecast thumbnail to enlarge.
Complicating snow clearing efforts are windchills that beginning tonight will drop well below zero. Tomorrow’s windchills will hover at or remain below zero, with “warming” to around 10 degrees not coming until after it begins snowing on Saturday.
Here are the ugly details. Click graph thumbnail to enlarge.
Fire hydrants have vanished? — Is the fire department or DPW willing to get out in town and spray paint the snow piles where fire hydrants are so folks can dig them out? Unfortunately with all the snow the flags are in most cases completely buried and folks could not keep up with the storms and we now have a real risk that needs to be attended to. Thanks.
+1 not even sure where they are on Atwood..
Keeping snow cleared is more of a nightmare if you put it off to the point that it becomes huge mounds that you have to chisel away at. I try to get out periodically and keep the perimeter locked down– easily my least favorite part of winter.
Is it possible to find out how the Fire Department is addressing this potentially huge public safety issue before it becomes a tragedy? Are they marking hydrants, helping DPW and residents to clear them, prioritizing only certain areas of town like school zones?
I have lived in several towns where the fire department cleared snow from hydrants when they were not on calls. It sure doesn’t seem that the fire department is too busy to clear hydrants. Why aren’t they doing this?
The Fire Department and some volunteers have already done some hydrant clearing this winter.
On February 11th, the Fire Dept. posted a photo to Facebook with caption “You might’ve seen our crew out today doing our part to plow out hydrants. This one on Southville Rd was completely buried.”
(Link: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=798911163478043&id=676131885755972&substory_index=0)
On February 14th, SouthboroughTeenCERT tweeted pics with “Teen CERT & CERT/MRC volunteers clearing hydrants today.”
(Link: https://twitter.com/SboroTeenCERT/status/566708054096609280)
And it’s certainly possible work has been done more recently that hasn’t been shared on social media. I’m waiting for an answer from the Fire Department and DPW on how they are handling (or plan to) ones more recently reported in comments as buried.
Framingham has reflectors in the middle of the lane opposite where a hydrant is located. Perfect solution for those folks who don’t notice where they are nine months out of the year…
As for digging them out lets all get out there and start shoveling. I take care of the storm drains and hydrant by my house and could easily do one or two more this weekend.
I just called the DPW and they are going to check with the water department about marking hydrants in my area and then get back to me. The person who answered the phone said she would pass on my inquiry about reflectors in the road but I would urge others to call and ask as well. They may be more likely to take it seriously if more than one nut in town wants to locate hydrants.
I just heard back from the DPW and the “water guys” revealed that there are metal bands on the telephone poles with numbers. The numbers are the distance away in feet of the nearest hydrant. I assume there is some logic as to which direction away from the pole the hydrant is located and will test that assumption when I get home this evening.
The fire department did those bands over 20 years ago. Many have disappeared due to weather, pole replacement, etc. The number is the distance to the closest hydrant, and faces towards that specific hydrant.