City takes action after church in Hudson burns near shattered fire hydrant

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KTRE) – A church in Deep East Texas is a total loss after a fire. It turns out that a broken fire hydrant contributed to this loss.

The fire started at Triumphant Life Church in Hudson last week.

Firefighters kept running out of water while battling the blaze.

“One of the problems we had with this fire is that we kept running out of water. There is a fire hydrant that is a few hundred meters from where we are, and it’s been out of service for a while,” Hudson Fire Marshal Joe Burton said.

Before services began, the pastor opened the doors and found the church was filled with smoke.

Hudson Water Supply president and manager James Young said the nearest fire hydrant was not working due to a broken rod. Young says the company said there had to be a number of hydrants for them to come and fix the problem.

“About four years ago we had two or three hydrants that weren’t working, and I called a company in Houston, well Baytown, and they said they had to have at least ten hydrants. “fire out of order before they could get up. It was not economically possible for them,” Young said.

Young says about 90% of fire hydrants are out of service because of a broken stem.

“What happens is that when you turn off the hydrant, there will be water coming out of the little hole where the hose branches off, and you get to a certain place, and the water goes still come out because there’s still pressure in there. Some people think it’s not tight enough, so they rev up again and they break the rod,” Young said.

Young says they’ve found a new company that will come in and fix all the out-of-order fire hydrants.

“We now get a list of everyone who is out of order, we check every hydrant in our system,” Young said.

The city says they are in the process of getting in touch with this company and will shop around and see which one needs repairs.

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