North Texas house burns because local authorities switched off hydrants "to fight terrorism"

A house in North Texas burned down ~~killing two occupants~~ (me stupid, me misread article, no one die) because the local authorities had switched off the fire-hydrants to stop terrorists from poisoning the water supply through them (?!?!). As Schneier sez, "This pegs the stupid-meter." At 11.

He explains all the district's hydrants, including those in Alexander Ranch, have had their water turned off since just after 9/11 - something a trade association spokesman tells us is common practice for rural systems.
"These hydrants need to be cut off in a way to prevent vandalism or any kind of terrorist activity, including something in the water lines," Hodges said.
But Hodges says fire departments know, or should have known, the water valves can be turned back on with a tool.

Wait wait wait. Turned back on with a tool? So these fire-hydrants will prevent terrorists who are capable of poisoning the water supply through them, but only if they're incapable of getting a tool? Are the fire hydrants in your neighborhood turned on? (via Schneier)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Beanolini

#16, Hassan-i-sabbah:

The Water Resources Act 1991 allows for a prison sentence of up to two years (and/or a hefty fine) for ‘polluting controlled waters’.

As far as I know, no-one from any of the big water companies has been imprisoned for this, though bosses of small businesses certainly have been.

The Environment Agency once bizarrely prosecuted itself (sort of) under the Act.
Eyebrows McGee

I lived in a (women’s) dorm where some dingbat locked all the fire exits so that we couldn’t bring teh boys in after hours. Which was lame but whatever, right up until we had A FIRE with smoke billowing down the hallways and only two working doors. And nobody had known the fire exits were locked until they tried to escape the smoke that way and couldn’t.

There should be laws about this kind of thing … oh, wait …
Antinous

The Wikipedia article on fire hydrants is pretty interesting.
airship

I, for one, am thankful that our diligent public servants are protecting us from non-tool-wielding terrorists.
Gregory Bloom

A graph of death rates from terrorism in the US shows a flatline at zero except for 2001, where it rises to 10 deaths per million people. Even if every year were like 2001, we would still lose more people to tornadoes (17 per million). The war on terror is absurd overreaction, one might even call it an allergic reaction, relative to the danger it has posed. Incidents such as this probably give rise to greater deaths per million in most years, where deaths from terrorism is essentially zero.
Phikus

“Wouldn’t it be really hard to introduce lethal levels of poison into a water supply via a fire hydrant?”

But wait! I saw it in a movie… Ask Batman. -There is no supervillain called “The Arsonist”…
Anonymous

This is awful, and if the facts are true as reported this is a catastrophic chain of failure that might reflect poorly on the fire service(s) of the area. But I can’t say for sure; so much of this makes me ache for more precise info. Forgive me as I more or less think out loud on the subject.

I’m a paid-on-call municipal firefighter in a moderately-sized Wisconsin town (8,000 people). My department covers not just our city but about a hundred square miles of surrounding urban/rural interface. That’s a fancy way of saying that we deal with a lot of space where farm fields and forests start turning into suburban housing developments. We have urban areas with full hydrant coverage, interface areas with partial coverage, and rural areas where there ain’t no hydrants for a million billion miles.

We draw water from our hydrant system at our drills at least once and usually twice per month– we train at multiple locations per drill night, and in different general areas whenever possible. This is not just to keep us familiar with the art of hydrant hookups, it’s to spot check that the water system is working as intended for us. Our city water department works hand-in-hand with our chief, and any expected shutdown or decrease in pressure at any point in the network is brought to our immediate attention, just as we call them the moment we break something or find a malfunctioning hydrant.

What I mean to illustrate by all of the above is that we are intimately aware, at all times, of what the hydrant state is supposed to be in any area under our jurisdiction. We know whether we can expect to get our water supply on-scene or whether we have to haul more of it with us.

For rural areas where a hydrant water supply cannot be assured, we maintain two dedicated water supply trucks (call them “tankers” or “tenders” depending on which lingo your area prefers) carrying about 3000 gallons apiece. The idea is that these trucks will go to the scene, drop large collapsible tanks, fill those tanks with their onboard water, and then rush off to refill– creating a “water shuttle” system that replaces, as best possible, the nonexistent hydrants.

We also take pains to map and survey any possible body of water large enough to serve as a potential supply– ponds, creeks, lakes, rivers, wells. We have equipment that can draft from just about any such body of water into a tanker, or even draft directly into the water pump of an on-scene engine if the supply is close enough to the fire scene (say, within 2-300 feet).

The use of tankers/tenders is not some new or limited idea; it’s a standard procedure from coast to coast and has been for decades. And the more I’ve typed here, the more I’ve come to think that something is goofy with the situation, and it might not just be the hydrants. If the department responsible for the burning house knew that there was no hydrant supply to the area, where were its tankers? What efforts were made to get alternate water supplies to the scene? That’s important information for evaluating the overall situation.

Furthermore, in the interest of total fairness, I should say that perhaps those efforts were indeed made– perhaps those tankers were rolling as soon as possible, and the location of the house was just too far out from the responding station(s) for control of the fire to be established.

The unfortunate fact of life in any fire jurisdiction with a lot of rural area is that some people just plain live too far out to expect much if their fire is serious!

I have been on calls with a travel time of more than 20-25 minutes at 55+ MPH; and remember, even before getting on the road it would have taken at least five minutes for us to get paged, get to the station, and get the trucks rolling. And even -that- counts from the time the fire is noticed and reported, not from the time it actually started.

If this fire victim lived far enough out in the sticks, he may (understandably) be grasping at the hydrant issue in grief and anger. But it might also be a case where geography is the major villain rather than any human agency, and the hydrants, useless as they were, are not the key.
bardfinn

In Dallas County, the fire hydrants connected to Dallas’ municipal water supply are used to flush sediment from the system as well as being used for public safety.

Rockwall is directly to the east of Dallas – one county over. It’s directly adjacent to a large water reservoir lake. Thus, the irony.
jphilby

It is only when everyone correctly perceives that the threat of terrorism is real and persistent and requires ameloriative measures on all levels that law and order can once again prevail in the Homeland.
codesuidae

@40: I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to come up with a delivery mechanism that could accomplish that. It would probably consist of a pipe nipple with the appropriate fittings for attaching to a hydrant in the same fashion as a fire hose. The device would probably be about the size of a thermos bottle (depending on what size pipe you used and the adapters chosen).

The attacker would remove the cover thingy on the hydrant, attach the device, then open the valve to expose the water. The device, being sealed, would allow no water to flow out. The device would then be triggered to introduce the adulterant into the system.

If a large volume of adulterant were necessary a small air compressor could be used to pressurize a larger container connected by hose to the delivery adapter.

I’m sure you could assemble such a device almost completely from hardware store parts, probably for under $100 for a simple dye injector. A high volume system would cost more because of the requirement for a compressor with sufficient PSI capacity (exceeding 150PSI at a reasonable flow rate will take a fairly substantial, though still consumer-grade, compressor. In this case one of those big floor-standing compressor tanks could serve as both the reservoir for the adulterant as well as the compressor tank).

You could bypass all the DIY stuff simply buy a surplus firetruck (A FOAF did this, got to ride in it myself) for ~$5000 and just hook it backwards and pump hundreds of gallons of whatever you want into the system.
buddy66

Tools? There’s only one to worry about.

DEMO BURN BY VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT
……………………………………………………
“Well, they got the crowd settled down and the children
rounded up, and then threw in some more kindling,
added fuel to it, lined up the fire hoses to the
hydrants, adjusted their new red fire helmets, and
then ignited the mess and set it aflame…
And the large wrench broke off on the hydrantâ€™s
release bolt.Â It broke off right near the gripping
jaws, rendering it useless.Â Of course, wouldnâ€™t you
know, it was the only large industrial wrench they had
with them.Â Men went running to the mill and to the
firehouse to fetch another, but the flames did not
wait for them…
…………………………………….

And that is how the 1937 Toledo Volunteer Fire
Department burnt down all the buildings and businesses
on the Toledo waterfront.”
minTphresh

this proves it. the terrorists HAVE won. hoy, jeebus.
mightymouse1584

NTPUFTITWOT

(ty bardfinn for the acronym
nanuq

According to the story, even if they had the right tool, the hydrant may not have worked anyway since the private water company isn’t required to run enough water through it. Don’t you just love capitalism?
Mazoola

Um, no one died as a result of this, as far as I can tell. Various grandparents *had* recently died, and their photos were lost. Still doesn’t make it any less stupid, though.
danimagoo

Yet another example of the authorities doing things to make us safer that don’t.

One minor correction. The way I read the original story, I don’t think anyone died in the fire. The homeowner said “My grandfather died last year. My wife’s grandfather died last year. All our pictures were the biggest thing that we lost”. The way I read that, the grandparents died sometime before the fire.
minTphresh

says that two were killed.
AndrewJC

@Mightymouse1584: I totally just submitted Bardfinn’s acronym to acronymfinder.com. That’s brilliant.
Brainspore

Wouldn’t it be really hard to introduce lethal levels of poison into a water supply via a fire hydrant? You’d need some kind of high-pressure setup to get anything into the system, and you’d need some kind of supertoxin that would remain lethal after being radically diluted. All that to kill what, a few farmers?

I suspect you’d kill a lot more people if you just started some fires.
ESQ

I live in a nice neighborhood in Phoenix, and I just realized that we don’t have a single fire hydrant in the area!

What the hell?
Anonymous

Oh, yeah. Because if there’s one place terrorists dream of taking out, it’s Alexander Ranch, TX.

I live in NYC, where we actually did get a terrorist attack a few years back. But my folks live out West, and something that throws me every time I visit is:

For some reason that completely escapes me, people in small towns get really insulted if you imply that where they live would be of no interest to terrorists. “We’re only 20 miles from a dam!!! There’s an abandoned military installation three counties over!!! And we’ve got the biggest grain silo in the state!!!” If you press the point, they’ll call your mom later and tell her that you’ve got too big for your britches living out East.
mizerock

TSA tells me that water cannot be allowed through the security screen, as it might possibly explode.
So thank God that the hydrants were not functional – the whole neighborhood might have been lost after being sprayed with a suspected accelerant!
sidb

If a hydrant is turned off, I’m sure the traffic cops would have no problem if I parked next to it, right? I really hope someone challenges a ticket on that basis. They might even turn the hydrants back on if it’s required to protect the city’s ticket revenues.
Cory Doctorow

You’re right, I misread.
Anonymous

Wait. Wait.

Isn’t this making terrorism easier? Instead of the handful of people out there who would be creative and clever enough to figure out a way, and get ahold of toxins in order to, poison our water supply we’ve suddenly given any wanna-be terrorist the ability to destroy an entire neighborhood with a lit match?

I can see the local news report: Half a city destroyed when a small brush fire near a local home surged out of control. Arson suspected as a submitted terrorist video shows them starting the fire; but thank God our water supply is safe!
AirPillo

I suspect you’d kill a lot more people if you just started some fires.

Which is all the more ironic because someone is far more likely to think of doing that than to try to poison the water supply through a hydrant.

Seriously… sit down and try to think of ways to sow havoc in a populated regoin. Tell me you don’t think “set lots of fires” before you think “contrived poisoning attempt through the fire hydrants”.

The fires are a lot less expensive, too.
Xenu

What if terrorists have infiltrated the police? We should abolish the police!
Phikus

From the article: “They maintain the hydrants are technically only there to help flush out and clean their systems.”

Only there to flush out their systems? What kind of systems would these be? Hmmmm… Maybe… FIRE-FIGHTING systems? Have you ever seen the word hydrant associated with any other word but fire? Yes they’re FIRE hydrants… …but they’re only there to “help flush out and clean their systems…”

(*head explodes*)
cha0tic

There’s a hardware shop down the road from me. I’m sure I’ve seen tools of all sorts for sale there. Do you think I should inform the police?
Belac

There is an apt 4-letter acronym for what should happen to the people responsible.
Anonymous

For the record:

1.All water used for fire suppression typically comes from the drinking water system.

2.Non-potable water entering the potable water supply is called backflow. Water flows from high pressure to low pressure. There are devices and assemblies that prevent backflow and they are called backflow prevention assemblies. If the fire department where concerned about terrorist poisoning the drinking water supply they could install a backflow preventer in a locked inaccessible box on the supply line to the hydrant.

3.â€œFlushingâ€ the drinking water lines is typically done to increase the level of chlorine (or total residual chlorine) in the water. If the chlorine levels are low then the water could potentially be contaminated by a number of nasty microbes. This typically occurs at dead ends in the water distribution system.

With that said, I have seen far worse than this. I am unable to grasp why we as a species are unable to quantify risks and address them accordingly.
angryhippo

CODESUIDAE- I would imagine constructing a device such as what you described and using it would be a possibility. But how would turing off the supply prevent that from being used? After injecting whatever into the dry system, you would just have to wait for routine maintenance to happen. They flood the system, bingo, contaminate distributed.
jackie31337

“The neighborhood association’s now working to get the tools in the hands of homeowners, as an extra precaution.”

But how can you be sure the homeowners aren’t terrorists? And if you can trust them with the tools, why not just turn the fire hydrants back on? Argh!
regularfry

Phikus @10: Municipal water systems need flushing every so often to get rid of sediment build-up. That’s probably what they’re referring to. Fire hydrants aren’t usually on a separate network to the drinking water supply, but I don’t know offhand how usual it is for fire hydrants to do double-duty; there are differing pressure requirements for the two jobs. It’s still a slimy excuse, though.

Sediment coming out of peoples’ kitchen taps tends to cause comment. Actually, in the UK, it tends to cause water company bosses to go to prison, so they’re rather careful about it over here.
monstrinho_do_biscoito

berks
jesushootscores

..and good riddance.
hassan-i-sabbah

Regularfry@11 do you have any examples of UK water bosses going to gaol? Sounds delightful but somehow I doubt it.Citations please.
zeta

Oh please, people, vote for McCain, so that this terrorism-madness goes on at least for another four years. News from the US haven never so entertaining. (News from the UK are a close second though)
straponego

Nanuq@3: ah, but this will turn out to be another example of the beauty of the free market. If one private water utility doesn’t satisfy the market’s needs, others will sprout, offering such conveniences as credit card operation and touch screen ordering systems (partially subsidized with advertising).
angryhippo

FF here. Sounds like they cut the water supply using one of the junctions FF use to kill the water to a hydrant when one is damaged (read: run over). Yes they can turn the water on with “a tool”, but the time lost after realizing the hydrant is dry would literally be a killer. I would be fairly surprised if the FD was involved in this decision as they would most likely tell whoever came up with this to F off. Water is life to the FD.
Ugly Canuck

Anonymous fire fighter, thank you for your post.
Ugly Canuck

Dismantling society’s safety systems to fight “terrorism”?
I’d call this “errorism”.
Hartscov

An expansion perhaps of the TSA’s war on liquids? Could this be a new front in the global war on terror?
TheFool

Welcome to the exciting future of privatized public utilities and services!
angryhippo

As a follow-up, I have to call BS on the whole “they might put something bad in the system” theory. Has anyone here seen a hydrant open at 150psi? I challenge anyone to inject something into a 1 3/4 inch opening that’s dumping 400 gallons a minute. And have no one notice? Come on… You are more likely to have the situation in the article as a result.
derfla

In response to “The terrorists have won” I have an alternate, there is terrorism in the system.
Avram

I’m pretty sure you need a particular tool, not just any old screwdriver.

It’s probably a specially-designed proprietary tool. And someone’s probably figured out a way to jury-rig something else into doing the job. That’s how it happened with fire hydrants here in NYC.
Frank_in_Virginia

I didn’t need to wake up and hear of this madness.

“9/11 Never Forget (oh and never learn)”
TEKNA2007

Dismantling society’s safety systems to fight “terrorism”?
I’d call this “errorism”.

Love the term!
TEKNA2007

@UGLYCANUCK #19: Dismantling society’s safety systems to fight “terrorism”?
I’d call this “errorism”.

Ahh that’s a good one Canuck. Love the term!
Uhclem

“Are the fire hydrants in your neighborhood turned on? ”

Oh yeah. I know they are, because I put LSD into all of them.
mint_intense

Didn’t you know? The communists have been poisoning the water supply since they introduced fluoride back in the fifties. As the general says its all about the bodily fluids. Don’t want little johnny drinking the wrong kind of water and growing a beard. dear god no, think of the children!
AirPillo

… disabling a public safety utility… used to fight a common, indeed everyday cause of damage to property and loss of life… in order to protect against a low-probability threat which has never once occurred in that locale nor indeed in the entire nation.

That is every bit as stupid as refusing to wear seatbelts because you heard it was possible that they could cause you injury in a crash. Instead of getting a broken rib from your shoulder strap, you decide to fly headfirst through the windshield in a crash and catch a telephone pole with your mangled bloody crater of a face.

It is positively nonsensical to leave oneself unprepared against -certain- harm in the name of preparedness for extremely unlikely harm.

The mind boggles and the heart weeps for those people living with such decision makers.
Anonymous

@41

Probably a tool like one of the ones here

http://www.mcgard.com/security/water.asp

I work for the company that makes em,(but not in that dept.),and they sell pretty good from what I can tell.
ill lich

Someone needs to make a comprehensive (and ever growing) list of all the ridiculous things that have been done in the name of “preventing terrorism”, along with short snarky explanations why these very things DON’T prevent terrorism. I think the whole of it would put everything in the proper perspective.