Firefighters frustrated over faulty Noblesville hydrants - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Firefighters are expressing frustration with hydrants that didn't work when they needed them to at a weekend apartment fire.

The fire took out an entire apartment complex near Hamilton Town Center in Noblesville Sunday afternoon. As the fire raged, taking out 24 apartments at the Deer Chase Apartments, bystanders noticed the hydrants weren't working.

"They don't do nothing. They tried to," said one witness.

Victims of the fire and firefighters alike are both frustrated by the lack of water from the hydrants. As it turns out the hydrants failed. The end result was more than a dozen families lost their homes and most everything they own.

Enough water, says Rick Russell with the Noblesville Fire Department, would have made a big difference.

"We believe we would have been a different story," Russell said.

The difference comes down the color of hydrant.

In Noblesville, red hydrants mean it is hooked up to a private water system, yellow are owned and maintained by the water company. Red hydrants are what the fire department calls "restrictive." When they hook up to a red hydrant to put out a fire, they are like any other customer. If the hydrant doesn't work or have adequate water pressure, the fire department has to call in someone who can find the problem and fix it.

"So they checked it and they went back out and checked, 'Yeah, we still don't have water, so they go back in," Russell said.

At first, workers thought a valve failed. Then, they found the main water line for the entire complex.

"I'm gonna tell ya, it takes...yeah...okay they, (making the motion of turning a giant valve) and they had to turn it numerous times and once you got it open, we had water," said Russell.

Someone, according to the fire department, had partially closed the main water line, reducing the water pressure and amount of water available to fight the fire.

Eyewitness News is finding that it's not just in Hamilton County. Many other cities, towns and townships have the same issues with hydrants.