Firefighters face hydrant issues in Colorado Springs neighborhood

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- There are nearly 20,000 fire hydrants across the Colorado Springs area, but most of them are only checked every three to five years to make sure they're working.

This summer, firefighters discovered a problem with a fire hydrant near a woman's home after she died when the house caught fire. Three years ago, firefighters ran into the same issue in the same neighborhood.

On the night of August 18th, Colorado Springs firefighters arrived at 404 North 14th street to find an apartment duplex in flames.

"We do have a fully involved structure," one firefighter said through radio traffic.

When some people inside made it out, they told fire crews that one person was still inside. "Neighbors are saying one party might still be inside we cannot make entry without water," a firefighter said on the radio.

So firefighters moved quickly to hook up to the nearest fire hydrant, but that's when they ran into a serious issue. "We're having terrible hydrant pressure off of these hydrants over here."

To get the pressure up, they called Colorado Springs Utilities. But 10 minutes after getting ahold of someone with CSU to increase the water pressure, nothing changed.

Then an hour after the call came in, crews confirmed there was a body in the burned-down duplex.

The victim was identified as 64-year-old Robin Burke who died from smoke inhalation and thermal burns, according to the El Paso County Coroner. The victim's son tells KRDO he is considering legal action.

Firefighters say the hydrant issue did not lead to Burke's death because when they arrived, the fire had already taken over the complex. But crews said the problem during the response wasn't a surprise to them.

"This is where we've had water issues in the past."

Right behind 404 N. 14th Street where Burke died is 404 Spring Street. The home caught fire in 2017, and firefighters also struggled to find a working fire hydrant.

Colorado Springs Fire Department incident reports obtained by KRDO NewsChannel 13 from that fire show crews had water pressure trouble with three fire hydrants from that February 2017 fire. The fourth one they hooked up to was described as only having "decent pressure".

Months after the incident, homeowner Jasen Kinney filed a complaint against the City of Colorado Springs and Colorado Springs Utilities in July about the issue with the hydrants. The City's Risk Management Department responded to the complaint saying while they sympathize with Kinney's situation, they found no evidence of negligence on behalf of Colorado Springs or CSU.

Kinney did reply with a letter of intent to file a lawsuit. However, public records indicate Kinney never filed a lawsuit.

Jennifer Kemp, a spokesperson for CSU, says out of the 19,000 fire hydrants in Colorado Springs, about 2,500 are inspected every year. Those are the ones considered critical, located in highly populated areas or where wildfire mitigation would need to happen.

"We primarily do our inspection and maintenance program beginning in the spring, concluding by fall," Kemp said.

But for the ones deemed not critical, Kemp said, "The remainder of inspections on the other 16,000 hydrants are done five-year preventative maintenance schedule."

We asked why doesn't CSU inspect fire hydrants more frequently, Kemp's responded, "With approximately 19,000 public hydrants in our system and our current staffing, it's just not a feasible option."

One solution CSU gives is if fire crews do run into this problem, they can go to another nearby hydrant. More often than not, there is one nearby. But that adds precious minutes in an emergency situation and as we've seen there's no guarantee that the hydrant will work.