FIRE HYDRANTS

I'm ready.  I know, I know, it's taken a while, but the time has finally come.

I'm ready to talk about fire hydrants in Canada.

The first thing to say is that over in the UK, we don't have them. Oh sure, they're on every street corner here, but in Blighty, the fire crew are not quite so organised. Our brave firemen have to trundle their hose over to the nearest mains water manhole cover, rip it open, plug in the hosepipe and, oh it's kind of the same isn't it.

Well, even so, we definitely don't have these little doofers wedged into the pavement. I've seen loads while I've been here. They're like little robots, waiting to be used, waiting for the day when there's some kind of disaster and they can spring into action.

Wikipedia tells me that even as long ago as the Great Fire of London, people thought it prudent to drill holes in the ground so that they could access water quickly. It's a shame they didn't also think it prudent to space their wooden houses out a little bit. Ever since, we've been unplugging waterholes to put fires out.

I quite the like reassurance of a fire hydrant. It reminds me that there is always help at hand. And here in Toronto, that help is hard to miss - they're bright yellow.

This one's got a chain across it, presumably so you don't lose the plug when you twist it off. I say you, unless you're a firefighter in the Toronto Fire Service, it's not likely to be you that wrenches the plug off a bright yellow fire hydrant.

This one was in the park, for all those park-based fire emergencies you're always hearing about. Interestingly, it didn't seem to be anywhere near the road, whereas the others were in handy reach of a fire truck.

This fire hydrant wasn't in Toronto. It was in Niagara, where presumably someone decided that red was the colour for these things. Actually, I think the colour coding might mean that you can get quite a lot of water, quite quickly out of this little billy.

This one's in Niagara too. It's red all over. Actually, there were loads of fire hydrants in Niagara, come to  think of it. I guess they must be short of water.

As I say, I think it's great. "Hey everybody!" says the fire hydrant, "Any fires? I'm here, y'know just right here like a gigantic faucet, ready when ya need me. Any fires? Anyone?"

I'm quite happy that they're there. I just hope I don't ever need one.