NFPA Fire Tanks Texas
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) a fire department responds to a fire somewhere in the United States EVERY 24 SECONDS. “In 2018 more than 58,000 fires burned nearly nine million acres across the U.S. More than 25,000 structures were destroyed, including 18,137 residences and 229 commercial structures.”
With all the recent fires in Central Texas and surrounding areas, we’ve become very aware that we live in an area prone to wildfires. There are several counties in Texas that require water storage for fire protection for commercial buildings and residential homes exceeding 2 stories. All of our Texas steel NFPA fire protection tanks meet NFPA-22 and NFPA-1142 standards for commercial and residential use.
In the photo, you will see a fitting commonly used on our NFPA fire tanks in Texas. This fire protection accessory is called an OS&Y Gate Valve (outside stem and yoke). As the operator rotates the handle (A) counterclockwise, the stem (B) lifts out of the handle, opening the gate to allow water to flow freely from the tank. The fitting on the end (C) is called a dry hydrant adapter this is the attachment that the fire department connects to.
Alternately if you have a larger area that you need fire protection for, you can opt to place dry hydrants throughout the property. The photo shows a pipe going from the OS&Y into the ground.
That pipe feeds water from the NFPA fire tank to various dry hydrant locations. See the photo.