WORKING SMOKE ALARMS SAVE LIVES, You Say? What About WORKING FIRE HYDRANTS? Do They SAVE LIVES Too?

It seems to me that in the most practical of terms there's no difference between the purpose of a smoke alarm and a fire hydrant: they're both intended to prevent fires and save lives and structures when a fire does occur.  They go about their jobs differently, but they both have the same goal in mind; they are both part of the arsenal of fire safety, along with fire extinguishers.  The only difference is that one is inside a structure while the other is outside.  And any sensible person or fireman can agree that both alarms and hydrants need to be WORKING in order to prevent fires and save lives and structures.  Furthermore, when they are found to be not working, alarms, extinguishers, and hydrants should be fixed as quickly as possible, like without hesitation.  And if they can't be fixed, they should be replaced with working ones right away!  You never say, as Rob Perry and any number of Hudson Fire Department officials have said at public meetings justifying the existence of out of service hydrants, "There are others should we need them."  This is an idiotic approach to fire and death prevention.  If that thinking applies to fire hydrants, it should apply to smoke alarms, shouldn't it?

The Hudson Fire Department is perfectly comfortable imploring residents to be smart about fire safety by making sure their house smoke alarms are working at all times while, at the same time, thanks primarily to Rob Perry and with the HFD's blessing, the city is littered with out of service fire hydrants, some covered in plastic bags FOR YEARS, if not decades!  The hypocrisy is rich.  They want us to do our part but they won't do theirs! (There are at least 10 out of service fire hydrants in town.)

Imagine if the 2 signs near the Firestation instead displayed the following:  IF YOU HAVE MULTIPLE SMOKE ALARMS IN YOUR HOUSE OR APARTMENT, DO NOT REPLACE DEAD BATTERIES IN ALL OF THEM.  JUST BE SURE ONE ALARM IS WORKING AT ALL TIMES.  THAT'S ALL THAT YOU NEED TO SAVE LIVES AND HELP US PREVENT HOUSE AND APARTMENT BUILDING FIRES.  THE FIRE HYDRANT NEAREST YOUR HOUSE MAY NOT BE WORKING, BUT THAT'S NOT A PROBLEM YOU NEED TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT.  IF IT'S OUT OF SERVICE, IT'S OUT OF SERVICE FOR A REASON.  YOUR ONE WORKING SMOKE ALARM MAY BE THE ONLY THING THAT SAVES YOU, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR NEIGHBORS, AND YOUR HOUSE OR APARTMENT FROM A DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.  BE SURE IT IS WORKING AT ALL TIMES, PLEASE.  ALLOWING ANYTHING ELSE IS NOT SMART.

The fire hydrant directly across the street from the Depot Lofts apartment building -- one of the two or three largest buildings in the city -- has been NOT WORKING for several years.  It was OUT OF SERVICE before the wooden structure went up and it's still OUT OF SERVICE.   It is also located about 250 feet behind the sign in the pictures above.  That rather "loud," constantly flashing, multi-colored, double-sided digital sign, which appeared about a year ago, had a price tag of just over $20,000.

Do you think Galvan's (Bard's?) insurance company that provides fire coverage for the Depot Lofts would be happy to know that the City of Hudson has decided that the fire hydrant directly across the street need not ever be a WORKING FIRE HYDRANT?

Ready to save lives inside the Depot Lofts, or 
just save the building itself.

Is the fire hydrant nearest your abode ready to fill a fire hose with high pressure water in case of a fire?  Would you allow Rob Perry to allow it to be out of service for years?  How about just for 6 months?  How about the hydrant second nearest to your abode?  You know, just in case the Hudson Fire Department needs two hydrants to put out a fire, maybe in the house next to yours.  

There are three hydrants in the 200 block of State Street, all on the north side.  The one in the middle has been out of service for years.  Second ward representative on the common council, Mohammed Rony, has been fully aware of that useless hunk of yellow painted metal for at least the past three years.  And he does nothing about it.  He is as useless as an out of service fire hydrant.  Mohammed, along with all his fellow council members, is intimidated by Rob Perry (whose gut is getting quite scary large, I gotta say).  If Rob Perry says out of service fire hydrants are nothing to worry about, they all shut the hell up.  But if the Hudson Fire Department tells us all to be sure every one of our smoke alarms is ALWAYS WORKING, well by golly, I reckon there's nothing to argue about there either.  Hell, they're the professionals.  We're just the dumb residents trying to make sense of their logic, trying to put two and two together.

Ready to save the lives of
city residents!  Why is it being 
protected from being run over?
Would Rob Perry replace it with a 
working hydrant if a truck took it out?
(3rd & Long Alley)