Roosevelt Island Blackwell Park Water Hydrant Sprinkler Cap Installed Yesterday, Cool Refreshment On Hot Summer Day - NYCEM CERT Volunteers Team Up With RIOC PSD, FDNY And NYC DEP To Make It Happen

Cooling off on a hot summer day got a bit better on Roosevelt Island yesterday after a water sprinkler cap was installed on a Blackwell Park FDNY hydrant.

First run thru the Roosevelt Island hydrant water sprinkler today at Blackwell Park pic.twitter.com/XpyuuhsQvV

— Roosevelt Islander (@Rooseveltisland) August 17, 2020

Roosevelt Island community activist and NYC Department Of Emergency Management (NYCEM) Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteer  Frank Farance, whose suggestion initiated the hydrant water sprinkler cap installation, reports. According to Mr Farance:

Yesterday, local and neighboring CERTs collaborated with the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Public Safety Department (PSD), NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and NYC Fire Department (FDNY) to open the hydrants and add sprinkler caps to provide cooling refreshment for the residents. We tried one hydrant at Blackwell Park
 

 and we'll open a second hydrant at the back of 30 River Road.

CERTs' raison d'etre is to allow the replacement of a police officer, firefighter, or EMT to go do more important things. As FDNY said: "We'd have to come out here daily to turn these hydrants on and off and we're not always available". Now CERTs can perform that role for hydrant sprinklers and let firefighters spend time on more important tasks.

While many people might be excited for the sprinklers, as I've emphasized: there are a variety of safety protocols that need to be in place before making the sprinkler available to the public.

For the CERTs, we were fortunate enough to have our NYC DEP Instructor Nevin Pahlad on site to review our operation, including the hands on portion of actually turning the hydrants on. Mr. Pahlad has provided numerous DEP trainings to the CERT program, including clearing storm drains (important in all four seasons) and spotting local flooding in our communities. Also, FDNY was on hand and they showed us important tips on operating the hydrant, checking for drainage within the hydrant (which becomes icing problems in winter), when to report problems to DEP, checking for debris inside, and handy tips putting on covers and sprinkler caps.

For the operation the rest of this summer season, CERTs will collaborate with RIOC and PSD on turning on and off the sprinkler caps - the present schedule is 11 AM to 5 PM on weekdays.

In summary, this was an important collaboration in that all parties - CERTs, NYC DEP, FDNY, RIOC PSD - shared knowledge and gained a common operating picture. I appreciate NYC Emergency Management (NYCEM) helping coordinate the trainings and the operational efforts.

Watch how the new Roosevelt Island Water Hydrant Sprinkler Cap is installed.