Fire hydrants going from red to yellow in much of Wake

Thousands of fire hydrants across Wake County are going from red to yellow.

Raleigh is in the process of painting more than 22,000 city-owned fire hydrants throughout much of Wake over the next few months as part of an effort to comply with recommendations of the National Fire Protection Association.

The national standard is meant to make public hydrants more visible and distinguishable from privately owned hydrants, said Ed Buchan, an environmental coordinator for the city.

The fire department uses private hydrants to put out fires, but the city does not maintain them.

“Previously, there was a lot of confusion about who was responsible for which hydrants, so this change will obviously address that issue,” Buchan said. “I’ve also been told that the yellow paint is also more resistant to UV damage and should provide a moderate increase in paint longevity.”

Hydrants will also become yellow in the Wake towns that receive water from Raleigh: Garner, Knightdale, Rolesville, Wake Forest, Wendell and Zebulon.

Crews in Garner, Wake Forest and Wendell have already been painting their hydrants yellow, said Whit Wheeler, Raleigh’s assistant public utilities director.

Raleigh inspects all of its fire hydrants every year, and crews repaint them as needed at a cost of $25 each, Wheeler said. The city plans to paint more hydrants than usual – but this time yellow – over the next several years.

The color of fire hydrants varies across North Carolina.

Charlotte has yellow, Greensboro has forest green and Chapel Hill has red.

The recommendation from the National Fire Protection Association has been in place for decades, but some cities and towns have been reluctant to go yellow because residents don’t always embrace the change, said Ken Willette, a former fire chief in Massachusetts who now works for the association.

But more municipalities might soon make the transition, he said, because they can possibly get lower insurance rates if they paint their hydrants yellow.

The American Water Works Association, a nonprofit that aims to improve public health and protect the environment, also recommends yellow public hydrants.

“They use it as a benchmark for compliance,” Willette said.

The groups suggest a range of colors – red, blue, green, orange – for private hydrants to help firefighters quickly and easily assess water capacity, he said.

In Raleigh and the other affected Wake towns, the change will mostly help maintenance crews distinguish between public and private hydrants.

“It’s just a very simple way to differentiate the private infrastructure from the publicly owned infrastructure, and that helps us to understand what our duties are in terms of maintenance,” Buchan said.

The Raleigh Fire Department uses a computer program that maps where fire hydrants are and their flow rates.

“Before they get to the scene, they know which hydrant they want to hook to,” said Robert Massengill, Raleigh’s public utilities director.

Buchan said Raleigh hasn’t received any pushback for its move to yellow.

Willette warned that might change if the city someday looks to add more colors.

“People tend not to like wide color variations,” he said.

Staff writer Chris Cioffi contributed.

This story was originally published September 18, 2016 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Fire hydrants going from red to yellow in much of Wake."