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Colorado Springs Utilities asks people to report broken hydrants Had it not been for Francia Custodio's quick thinking on Saturday she says her granddaughter might not be alive today. A fire started in their apartment and completely engulfed the bedroom where the 2 year old girl was resting. She ran into rescue her.
"I ran so fast through the fire," said Custodio, who suffered some major burns on her arm. "I stumbled. We fell in the hallway."
Her granddaughter's face was also badly burned. "I saw her face peeling and her forehead had like blisters and bubbles," said Custodio.
However, she says even more painful than the serious burns is knowing that two fire hydrants outside her apartment did no work. "Don't we pay for that? Our taxes? Things like that are not supposed to happen," said Custodio.
Deputy Fire Marshall Kris Cooper says it's rare for fire fighters to encounter a situation where two fire hydrants malfunction.
Cooper says one of the fire hydrants fire fighters tried to use Saturday was owned by the property owners. He added that it is illegal to have a fire hydrant that is not properly maintained. However, he says the fire department doesn't have the staff to personally inspect them all.
"It could go years before a property owner spends the money to have their hydrants tested or maintained. That's where we have a lot of problems," said Cooper.
The other malfunctioning fire hydrant belonged to Colorado Springs Utilities. Together with the Colorado Springs Fire Department they say they've devised a system for checking fire hydrants. However, in the past year they've inspected only about 6,800 of the over 16,000 hydrants in Colorado Springs.
Colorado Springs Utilities says they have no idea of knowing if a hydrant is in disrepair unless they inspect it in person. "We really don't know which ones work until we go out and physically touch and operate each hydrant," said Pat White of Colorado Springs Utilities.
They say even after they inspect the hydrants there are a number of things that can damage them. It's one reason they're asking people to report hydrants they believe might be broken in their neighborhood.
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