The fire hydrant closest to Lawrence Grassi Middle School does not meet standards required by municipal guidelines for water flow.
The flow issue was identified this year as part of Epcor developing a Water Master Plan and a project to fix the problem included in the five-year capital budget.
Manager of public works Andreas Comeau said the draft master plan has shown through computer modeling that the water main along seventh avenue does not have the width needed to reach water flow requirements under the Town’s engineering and design guidelines for an institutional building.
“The flow to the fire hydrant is inadequate,” Comeau said. “We are moving proactively to deal with this situation.”
Deputy chief administrative officer Lisa de Soto said the situation is not one of concern from a safety perspective.
“We certainly would be able to fight a fire there,” de Soto said. “There just would not be as much water as we would like from that one hydrant.”
Officials with Canadian Rockies Public Schools were not aware of the situation until recently. Facilities manager Ken Riordon said CRPS installed the hydrant as part of construction of the new LGMS building.
He said the hydrant met all the requirements at that time.
In spite of the fact the major water main along Seventh Avenue does not have the required width to meet water flow requirement Riordon said he does not have major concerns.
He pointed to the fact the school building is equipped with sprinklers and has a stan pipe at its entrance where firefighters can connect directly into the facility’s water supply if there were to be a fire.
“The building is well protected,” Riordon said.
The Town’s engineering design guidelines requires fire flow of 200 L/s for a commercial or institutional building. The current pressure ranges between 78 and 85 L/s.
The capital project in the budget identifies $100,000 for 2014 to install a 200 mm waterline and 200 mm lead to the hydrant.
The work would occur in conjunction with major road upgrades in the area.
