Stratford Firefighters Dig Out Hydrants

Firefighters in Stratford made the rounds Tuesday to dig out fire hydrants buried by snow and make them once again available to emergency responders who need them.

“We have to keep the fronts clean, and the side ears," said Stratford Fire Lt. Jim Mecozzi. "What we do, the main line is the large hookup in the front, and then we do one side of the hydrant, the closest to the fire.”

Firefighters said unobstructed hydrant access is very important in emergency situations, because hydrants are the main source of water when fighting fires.

“We carry a little bit of water on the fire trucks, but not enough to put out a house fire,” said Stratford Fire Chief Robert McGrath.

With two snow storms in a row, it's hard to stay on top of which hydrants are buried.

“It's extremely difficult because if the snow gets piled up, unfortunately, the plows plow them in and we need to get out and make sure they're available. So with back-to-back storms, the guys have been working really hard,” said McGrath.

However, they can't hit the town's more than 1,300 hydrants alone, so they're asking people who live and work in Stratford to help out.

“We'd appreciate if they can come out and help us out, adopt a hydrant or so, help us out, because we can't get to all of them right away. We try our best,” said McGrath.

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