Renton’s Water Department shares the credit for preventing the spread of Tuesday’s huge blaze

Water cascades off of a Harrington Square tower as fire fighters pour ten thousand gallons per minute on the blaze and surrounding neighborhood. This rate of flow would fill the entire Henry Moses Aquatic Center every thirty minutes. (Photo by Gary Palmer)

The Harrington Square fire scene on Tuesday night was a dramatic flurry of flames, firefighters, emergency vehicles, spectators, hoses, and water-water-water everywhere. I was amazed by the number of fire hoses in action by the time I arrived at the scene.

I instantly thought about the conversations we had held about the fire flow capacity in this neighborhood several years earlier, and the complex projects our water department had undertaken to improve the condition.

In the previous year our water department engineering supervisors, Abdoul Gafour, Lys Hornsby, and Greg Zimmerman had lead their teams on a massive effort to improve the water capacity in this neighborhood specifically to prepare for a large apartment-house fire.

The improvements they made included trenching over a mile of street to put in larger water mains, the construction of a 4.2 million gallon reservoir near Hazen High School, and dozens of new connections and fire hydrants.

The new water mains were paid for through a Special Assessment District, that developers in the affected area pay into at the time of new construction of large commercial projects. This was determined to be the most fair way to get the water system necessary for safe large-scale development, without asking local homeowners to pay for it.

The water main upsizing came in under budget, at around 1.2 million dollars plus some city staff time. Considering that the two mostly finished Harrington Square towers (that already have carpet and appliances) were very possibly saved by the higher water capacity, we might have already seen a twenty to one financial return on these water upgrades. And if you consider that the water upgrades may have contributed to keeping other parts of the highlands from burning, the financial and emotional payback of the water upgrades is immeasurable. (For instance the Oakland Hills California fire of 1991 did two billion in damage and created overwhelming heartbreak; it was worsened by antiquated, narrow, water lines…fire fighters had too little pressure, or simply ran out of water while trying to battle that blaze.)

I spoke with our Water Utility Supervisor Abdoul Gafour yesterday, to commend him and his department for the excellent work. He responded with some very interesting data by email, which I have attached here:
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Hello Councilmember Corman,

As a follow-up to our phone conversation this afternoon, attached are copies of City correspondences with background information related to the water main improvements, and to the new Hazen 4.2 Million-Gallon reservoir, which were completed in February 2009. The new 12-inch looped water mains (located in NE Sunset Blvd, Harrington Ave NE, and NE 9th St) along with the additional storage from the new reservoir were able to deliver sufficient flows and water pressure during the recent fire in the Highlands.

Although the new water mains were designed to provide 5,000 gallons per minute based on a design criteria using a lower flow velocity in the pipe during normal usage to reduce scouring, they can provide 8,000 to 10,000 gallons per minute during a fire fighting event, because water will be drawn from the hydrants at a higher velocity.

Our telemetry records showed that all of our booster pump stations performed very well during the fire fighting event, and were able to replenish water storage to the Highlands and Hazen reservoirs from other storage facilities located in other pressure zones within the City. I am also attaching some photos taken during the construction of the 12-inch water line.

I was able to visit the site later in the evening of the event, and saw that fire trucks from Renton and from several other Cities and Fire Districts were drawing water from at least 8 hydrants simultaneously and that the water pressure and flowrate were adequate. Each hydrant can deliver a minimum of 1,000 gpm.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need additional information. Happy 4th of July to you and your family.

Regards,

Abdoul Gafour
Water Utility Engineering Supervisor
425-430-7210

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This scene, with many hoses being used, was the same on all four sides of the fire. Firefighters used additional hoses to spray down the surrounding homes.(Photo by Gary Palmer)

The day after the fire, a new hydrant hints at the massive water improvements undertaken by the Water Utility to prepare for such an event (Photo by Gary Palmer)

Below you can see the special assessment summary:

Last year: crews digging up Harrington Ave to install new water mains. (Photo courtesy of City of Renton)

A new water main placed in it’s trench last year (photo courtesy of City of Renton)

New Hazen Reservoir, completed last year, holds 4.2 million gallons of water to meet fire and customer needs in Renton Highlands

CLICK HERE for a six page power-point presentation council received in Utilities Committee containing additional detail about these water upgrades.