This winter, the Crookston Fire Department kicked off an Adopt-A-Hydrant program in the City of Crookston to keep hydrants clear of ice and snow in the event of a fire. Hydrants that are clear give firefighters the ability to immediately attach hoses and start fighting when arriving on the scene of a fire. If hydrants aren’t clear of snow and ice, firefighters may have to take several minutes clearing the snow and ice themselves before starting the fight, which could result in significant damage caused by a fire.
Crookston Firefighter Shane Heldstab said firefighters have seen a noticeable increase in cleared hydrants when driving through the community this year but that not many who are doing so have registered their hydrant as adopted. “It’s surprising to the point where walking around town, driving around town, you see a lot of people are taking care of their hydrants,” said Heldstab. “A lot of people are taking care of their hydrants. I don’t know if it’s a recognition or if people are leery about signing up for any reason, but we’ve had pretty minimal interaction down here surprisingly. People don’t have to put their names on them. But if people do have a hydrant that they’re clearing, all you have to do is call down and say this hydrant been adopted. We don’t need a name; we just want to show that people in this community have taken pride in helping out the fire department in keeping the public safe, keeping this community safe.”
Only 44 of the more than 400 fire hydrants in Crookston have been officially adopted, although Heldstab said that’s nowhere near the number of hydrants he believes are being cleared by residents. Heldstab said the fire department would like to see every hydrant being cleared turned green as a way to showcase the pride the fire department has in the residents and that the residents have in the community. “If you are doing it but you’re leery about putting your name on it, we won’t put your name on it,” said Heldstab. “On the internet, you can pull up our map at ckn.mn/hydrant. That’s going to take you right to the map we have of the City of Crookston and the hydrants. If you can, if you’re already putting in the effort to clear that hydrant, call or email us to let us know you’re clearing it. Our biggest thing is we want to change all those red icons to green icons. We want to be able to show our pride to everybody else and showcase that we do have a lot of people that do have pride in our community. We want to be able to reflect and show that. So, if you’re making time to clear your hydrant, we’re asking you to take a couple of seconds to call down to the fire hall 281-4584 and let us know that the hydrant you’re taking care of is adopted. Or you can email us at cfd@crookston.mn.us. If you can do that so we can turn those red hydrants to green to show people they are adopted, it would be greatly appreciated on our behalf.”
To notify the Crookston Fire Department of an adopted hydrant call 281-4584 or email cfd@crookston.mn.us to help them update their map.
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