At Midwest Fire Hydrant one of the most frequently asked questions of our fire hydrant engineers is, "How many fire hydrants do you guys maintenance, repair or replace every year?" The shot answer is, "A LOT!" The long answer is a bit more complicated. 

There are many factors that effect the longevity of fire hydrants. Here are a few...

• How often are the fire hydrants flushed? 
• How often are the fire hydrants painted?
• How quickly are the fire hydrants fixed when the are found broken?

Our fire hydrant engineers have maintained, repaired and replaced hundreds of makes and models throughout their experience. Throughout the years there have been many attempts to add up the total number of hydrants worked on by our engineers of worked on and the conversation usually ends in frustration because someone loses count! 

Another question we have come across is, "How many fire hydrants are in America?" Someone in our office recently found an article by Verisk Analytics, a company specializing in risk assessment and risk analytics. One of their subsidiaries (ISO) maintains the only national fire hydrant database in the United States. In 2013 they recorded the 6 millionth fire hydrant! If you would like to read more about it the full article is here. 

At Midwest Fire Hydrant, we believe that there are news stories that are positive and interesting. We also believe that there are media outlets that do not broadcast enough positive or interesting stories. We will post as many articles as we can that will might brighten your day, in an attempt to balance out the shocking stories we post. 

So, we found a story that happened a few years ago in Chicago. A Reddit poster put the pictures up. Here's the link to the Reddit article and the images that go along with it. 

Check out the article and the pictures. Leave your comments below. Science is awesome. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has performed multiple studies on Legionnaires' Disease (Legionella). The report by the CDC has shown that 78.1% of outbreaks are linked to community water systems.

​The new report by the CDC says that Legionnaires' Disease is the most common type of waterborne disease outbreaks associated with drinking water (65.6% in 2011-2012). Forbes and US News have comprehensive articles covering the recent spike in Legionella. 

The CDC strongly encourages communities, municipalities or private organizations to do their part in preventing waterborne diseases by properly maintaining water systems in which Legionella grow, including drinking water systems, which are directly connected to all of the hydrants in your town.