Why Are Fire Hydrants painted Different Colors?
The Salisbury Fire Department paints fire hydrants for several reasons. One is to protect the hydrant from rust, second for better visualization to our firefighters when looking for a hydrant, and finally they are color coded according to their rated flow. Each hydrant is flowed and its flow in GPM’s(gallons per minute) is calculated to 20 psi residual and the color is then determined on by this. Red, Yellow, Green and Light blue are the colors of our public hydrants owned by the City of Salisbury. Red is for 1-499 GPM, Yellow is for 500 to 999 GPM, Green is for 1000 to 1499 GPM and Light blue is for 1500 or greater GPM flows. There are several red hydrants and some yellow. On the whole there are more green and blue hydrants in the City of Salisbury. We do not like to have any red hydrants. There is an effort to replace and upgrade all red and yellow hydrants where flows can be improved.
The Salisbury Fire Department paints fire hydrants for several reasons. One is to protect the hydrant from rust, second for better visualization to our firefighters when looking for a hydrant, and finally they are color coded according to their rated flow. Each hydrant is flowed and its flow in GPM’s (gallons per minute) is calculated to 20 PSI residual and the color is then determined on by this. Red, Yellow, Green and Blue are the colors of our public hydrants owned by the City of Salisbury. There are several red hydrants and some yellow. On the whole, there are more green and blue hydrants in the City of Salisbury. We do not like to have any red hydrants. There is an effort to replace and upgrade all red and yellow hydrants where flows can be improved.
