Color Coding of Fire Hydrants

Why are Chesapeake's Fire Hydrant Colors Changing?

Do you ever wonder why fire hydrants are painted the colors they are?  For many years now the City of Chesapeake has painted the lower part of fire hydrants a reflective silver to assist the Fire Department in locating them, especially at night. The tops of the hydrants were color coded based on the flow of the hydrant under normal operating conditions expressed in gallons per minute.

The City of Chesapeake’s Fire Marshall’s Office has requested that the hydrants match that of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards for color-coding according to flow. The National standard for the body colors of the hydrants is a chrome yellow; however, silver is still recognized as a standard color. Therefore, municipal hydrant body color will continue to be silver. The tops or caps of the hydrants are going to change and will be painted according to flow on the hydrant at 20 pounds per square inch of pressure (psi).

NFPA 291 - Standard Color Codes for Flow at 20 P.S.I. are as follows:

CLASS C	LESS THAN 500 GPM	RED
CLASS B	500-999 GPM	ORANGE
CLASS A	1000-1499 GPM	GREEN
CLASS AA	1500 GPM & ABOVE	LIGHT BLUE

 

NFPA recommends that the bodies of municipal hydrants, private hydrants, and non-potable hydrants be distinctively color coded. The NFPA standard calls for private hydrants to be red. Chesapeake’s Fire Department requires that the lower barrel be red and the bonnet painted to meet the NFPA standard as well.

The most important thing is consistency in our approach so the Fire Department knows what the capacity of each hydrant is and whether it belongs to the municipality or not.

So if over the coming months you see those colors changing, you will know that we are hard at work doing maintenance and testing.

If you have questions regarding the process, please feel free to contact: Pennie L. Simmons, Water Distribution Superintendent at 382-3406.