Panama City firefighters begin annual spring fire hydrant maintenance
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – If you live in Panama City and see brown water coming out of your faucets, don't worry. Panama City firefighters are flushing water through all of the city's fire hydrants this month.
In between calls, they'll be stopping at all 2,750 of the city's hydrants. They'll perform maintenance and make sure they're ready for emergency situations.
'These hydrants are systematically our lifeline for water when a house is on fire, and the fact that they're working at 100% is when we get on scene, speeds everything up. If our guys are having to fight with the hydrant to get it on because the stems are tough, or the fact that the hydrant cats are stuck on, that's going to hinder our process and extinguishing the fire and saving your loved ones and property,' Division Chief of Fire Prevention Howard Demro said.
The process starts with removing all of the caps, making sure they're lubricated for easy removal. Then they flush the hydrants to remove possible sediment buildup to make sure water is clear and flowing properly.
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That sediment can cause possible water discoloration during this month's maintenance work.
'When that happens, we just ask the residents, if you see that, don't freak out. Just flow your water, turn multiple faucets on, let it flow for 3 to 5 minutes, and it should clear up,' Demro said.
Firefighters clean all the brush around the hydrant that could prevent them from seeing it or limit their access. Another step is installing blue reflectors to help identify hydrant locations.
They're documenting any issues or defects while conducting maintenance.
'The guys are writing them up immediately. I'm getting notification of this, we're sending it to underground utilities so they can start replacing caps, fixing the hydrants where they're easy to open, and making note of those hydrants that may have been hit by cars that we weren't aware of. They're getting all that stuff fixed,' Demro added.
Fire crews say they've documented 10 to 15 fire hydrants that need repair. City maintenance teams are scheduled to repair them.
Every 5 years, the department performs 'flow testing' to determine the hydrants' flow capacities.
Fire officials say they've repaired about half of the non-working hydrants since the yacht club fire. They also encourage you to sign-up for Community Connect, a platform allowing them to communicate with residents and enhance emergency response.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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