Fire hydrants turned off... to fight terrorism !! ??

ROCKWALL COUNTY - A North Texas homeowner wants you to learn from his family's tragedy.

The fire hydrants in his neighborhood are turned off.

But he didn't know that until June 24th, the night his house caught fire…

It didn't have to happen. When the fire began, firefighters from around Rockwall County responded quickly. But when they went to hook hose to hydrant, there was no water.

… all the district's hydrants have had their water turned off since just after 9/11 - something a trade association spokesman tells us is common practice for rural systems.

"These hydrants need to be cut off in a way to prevent vandalism or any kind of terrorist activity, including something in the water lines…"

Comments from the Reddit discussion thread:
The fire hydrants are run by a private company, Cash Water... private companies such as Cash Water are not required to maintain enough water pressure to fight fires.

They maintain the hydrants are technically only there to help flush out and clean their systems.

According to the article, even if the fire department had (a) known about the water being turned off, and (b) had the tool needed to turn it on, they still might not have had enough water pressure to fight the fire. It's shocking how many people are OK with that.

These hydrants were painted black, indicating (under state law) that they are not fire hydrants (which are red), and that while they have appropriate connections for a fire hose, that isn't their primary purpose and are not guaranteed to have sufficient (or any) water pressure. The company even went so far as to give the fire company the necessary tool to turn the hydrants on, but they neglected to bring it with them. The fire department screwed up by not bringing the tool AND a backup water truck to a place which they should know has no fire hydrants.

What do you suppose it is that Cash Water does? It is not "supply water to fire hydrants", which should be evident since there are no fire hydrants. Cash Water, as the name might imply, provides water to these homes in exchange for cash. The hydrants exist for the maintenance of that system; that they might be usable for firefighting is a happy coincidence that the company encourages by using compatible attachments. Since they connect directly to the water supply, it is important to keep random people from putting stuff down them.