Origin of the name "Fire Plug"

NancyNGA

Well-known Member
Location
Georgia
Where I grew up fire hydrants were always called "fire plugs." I always wondered why.:rolleyes:

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Hollowed-out wood logs were used for water pipes in the late 1700s-early 1800s.

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When a fire occurred, the firefighters dug down, found the log pipe, and drilled a hole through it. Water would fill the hole, forming a "wet well" to either get buckets of water, or serve as a reservoir for pumps to pull water. When the fire was out, the hole in the pipe would be sealed by driving a wood "plug" into it. The plug's location was often noted and marked before the pipe was covered over, so the plug could possibly be used the next time, instead of creating a new hole.

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Straightforward, huh?
 

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I remember wooden water pipes. They may still be in use today. However, I know of at least one town, Nederland, Colorado, that combined wooden pipes with metal hydrants.

I've been in a ghost town that only had one fire hydrant to show that there had ever been a town there.
 
I had a spark of insight that told me when wooden pipes with wooden plugs work and when they don't. It's obvious. It would be almost impossible to dig to water pipes in frozen ground, especially where the frost line may be five feet deep. It wouldn't be hard to connect a vertical metal pipe to the wooden pipe.
 


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