UPDATED: Village's 'Deficient' Fire Hydrant Pressure a Public Danger, Ex-Fire Chief Bombace Says

If there were a significant fire at Ridgewood High School, you'd bet the highly trained paid staff of the Ridgewood Fire Department could put it out, and quickly, right?

Maybe not, the former Fire Chief James Bombace said at Wednesday's council meeting, and it has nothing to do with how good the fire department is.

Instead, Bombace told the council, the pressure at the hydrants in the village are too low and he believes it's a public safety hazard, he said. The water pressure is "not even close" to what it should be, he said to the village council.

"Regardless of the number of firefighters, if you don’t have the gallons per minute, you’re not going to put the fire out," he said Wednesday.

Bombace explained that the standard pressure ratio is 4,500 gallons of water per minute, according to the Insurance Services Offices [ISO], which also determines fire insurance rates. In 1988, when the ISO reviewed hydrant pressure, hydrants throughout the village tested at 4,090 gallons per minute.

Lower pressure means a reduced ability to fight a large blaze, which would lead the ISO to docking points in the insurance review, which would lead to higher insurance rates. However, that's a mere side point–public safety could be at risk, the retired fire chief said.

Bombace said testing done in 2008 from the ISO indicates the hydrants are pumping out fewer than 1,000 gallons per minute.

"Almost every hydrant they tested flowed a lower gallon per minute than it did in 1988," he said. And the lowest tested pump?

"The most dramatic one is at Heermance Place, in front of the high school," Bombace said.

In a phone interview on Friday morning, Bombace elaborated on the possible danger.

"There should be 4,500 gallons per minute for a 3-alarm fire according to the ISO," he said adding that many factors determine the reason for that figure, but notably building size, construction type, contents.

In short, the smaller the buliding, the smaller the gallons per minute needed, he said.

"It's not uncommon in residential properties that a thousand gallons a minute would be necessary. But when you start talking about the Ridgewood High School, that's quite a bit larger than any residential building we have around."

But, he said, if it's a fully involved three-alarm fire, fighting it would be analogous to boiling water. "If you try to take a Bic lighter and boil a gallon of water, it'll never happen because there isn't enough heat. If you took a blow torch, you could. It's the reverse with fire. Not enough BTU's are being absorbed [to kill the fire]."

The concern is not in smaller residential properties, but larger buildings, he said. The fire department is aware of this problem, according to Bombace.

Bombace said he was reminded of the matter after reading about Ridgewood Water's capital bond request for $4.2 million, which he said spurred the thought–did the village ever figure out why the pressure tested so low in 2008?

"Being able to fight a fire adequately is more important than having a meter," Bombace said.

Village Manager, Water Department head disagree with Bombace

Village Manager Ken Gabbert took objection to Bombace coining the state of hydrant pressure "deficient" and Ridgewood Water Director Frank Moritz said it could be that the testing in 1988 was botched.

"There's no way to know," Moritz said, adding that the 2008 tests were done to prove the 1988 test was inaccurate, which he believes is the case."We find no reason to think the [2008] tests were done were wrong. However, we cannot go back to 1988 and say they were wrong."

Valve tightening equipment was purchased, a search may be widened further into the system and the village may add water mains to ensure continued pressure is not escaping, Moritz said. "There may be some locations we don't know about," he remarked.

Moritz admitted that although there are many factors in determining the insurance rates, "we could lose points for having a lower flow."

Bombace, in a phone interview said that given the village's Class 3 status on the ISO (on a 10 scale, 1 being the best), figuring out this problem could lead to legitimate savings for the village and businesses.

He estimated a 2-percent savings for every commercial property owner if the village were to return to a Class 2 status, something he claims the village had before 1988 and is a result of the water department losing ground on points, not the fire department. For some property owners, the savings on premiums could amount to five figures should the village jump from third to second class.

Regardless, Bombace said in the phone interview, the Water Department should "figure this out" and although he admitted he's no engineer, he suspects there's something more than just a valve not being closed.

Mayor Keith Killion, who chairs the Safety Committee, urged the group discover whatever could be causing any problems.

"See what we can do as soon as possible to immediately fix this problem," the mayor said.

Moritz said he and Bombace would get together and figure this out "more promptly" now that the weather is better. Current Chief James Van Goor should be involved in the process as well, Killion added.