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By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
WOODSTOCK — Rural ponds will be transformed into modern day bucket brigades after a dry hydrant was installed across from the Muddy Brook Fire Department Oct. 20.
Woodstock Fire Marshal Richard Baron was supervising the installation of a dry hydrant in the pond. Land owner Mark Billings, a one-time member of the fire department, gave the department permission for the dry hydrant to be installed.
Within the next few weeks, Baron said, a second dry hydrant will be installed in a pond at Fairholm Farm Inc. off Chandler School Road.
Both will draft a minimum of 1,000 gallons per minute, Baron said. “That’s the minimum,” he said. “I expect more.”
Many dry hydrants consist of a pipe coming out of a pond turning upward at a 90-degree angle.
Baron said the dry hydrants being installed will instead leave the pond and come to the surface at 45 degrees which will help increase the volume of water being drafted.
Tanker trucks will fill, drafting out of the pond and go to the scene of a blaze in the hydrant-less section of Woodstock where firefighters will attach their hoses to the tanker. The tanker will also build more pressure to the water as it exits the truck.
Baron said the two dry hydrants are funded with a 50-50 DEEP state grant under the forestry division. Part of the 50-50 for the dry hydrant across from Muddy Brook involved hiring Young Excavation to do the work.
Baron said it’s unlikely the ponds will ever run dry as they are spring fed. Straw was spread over the mud that popped up while the installation was done and two large boulders were placed next to the pipe to protect it.
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