By Simon Crump
Cotswold Journal
UPPER RISSINGTON, England — An investigation into why firefighters could not obtain water from three hydrants — while tackling a blaze at Upper Rissington — has revealed that one of the devices was an American version operated in a different way to its British counterparts.
The United States Air Force installed it when Upper Rissington was a US air base years ago.
Firefighters tried to turn it right, as is normal with British hydrants, when it should have been turned left.
They could not get water from one of the others because it was connected to a private main.
The third was not actually a hydrant but a wash out used to flush mains pipes.
All three are in Grebe Square, where 24 firefighters tackled the blaze.
Nobody was hurt in the fire that damaged two adjoining terraced houses on June 17 and is suspected to have started when a wooden fence, around four gas cylinders, caught fire.
A woman and her five-month-old baby left the one of the houses and alerted the firefighters, who extinguished the blaze that melted plastic window frames and smoke-damaged the upper floors of both two-storey houses, along with a bedroom and the kitchen in one of the properties.
Pete Muckle, the Stow fire station manager who led the firefighters, feared the outcome could have been worse if his team had been unable to ferry water from a hydrant in a neighbouring area.
He said his team had never encountered an American hydrant before and called for hydrants to be marked accordingly if they are a left-handed thread or wash out.
He said: “It definitely needs to be sorted out.”
Thames Water spokeswoman, Becky Johnson, said the water company conducted the investigation.
She said: “We’ve been out to ensure that none of them do come under our responsibility and we’re satisfied they’re not ours.”
Mark Jackson, managing director of the Reland development company that helped build the village on the former Ministry of Defence site, said his firm was not responsible for Grebe Square’s hydrants.
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