Fire services encouraging kids to help keep hydrants clear of snow for firefighters

Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services is encouraging children to become 'hydrant heroes' by chipping in to keep hydrants clear of snow for firefighters.

In a social media post issued Thursday morning, the local fire department is asking parents to tag Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with a photo of their children being a #HydrantHero for a chance to receive a certificate and fire safety gift bag personally delivered by firefighters. 

SooToday reader Scott Davie reached out to the newsroom after noticing fire hydrants buried in the snow in the Boundary Road area.

“Have you seen the fire hydrants lately? Me neither," Davie wrote. "Why are they not being uncovered to help firefighters save a home that God forbid be on fire.”

Davie considers the snow-covered hydrants a "pretty important safety problem."

“I don't know of one in the area that is not buried,” he wrote. 

In an email to SooToday Thursday, Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services Public Education Officer Aaron Gravelle said a recent fire on Millcreek Drive saw neighbouring homeowners clearing the snow around their hydrant, which "saved valuable time and made things much easier on our crews as we were setting up to extinguish the fire."  

PUC Services Inc. owns and maintains hydrants in Sault Ste. Marie. The utility company says there is a strategic plan in place to clear snow from hydrants that involves the city being broken down into seven different sections, and that it currently has several crews out in different sections of the city working to address the issue.   

“We do ask that customers be patient with us, we are getting to them. We do recognize that it is an issue, and the safety of our customers is certainly our number one priority,” said Katie Elliott, manager of corporate communications for PUC. “We are getting to them as quickly as possible, and we have put additional resources in because of the snowfall we’ve had over the last little bit.”