Volunteer firefighters in Aylesford got quite the scaly surprise on Tuesday while responding to a grass fire in the community – one they hadn’t encountered ever before.
When the firefighters tried to set up a dry hydrant to pump water from a nearby pond, they couldn’t get any suction.
They took the hydrant apart to see if there was a gasket gone, but what was actually causing their water woes was quite a shock.
“A pile of fish were stuffed in the hydrant,” Shawn Carey, fire chief for Aylesford and District Volunteer Fire Department, told Global News.
Carey said he figures there were about a dozen small fish stuck in the hydrant, completely clogging it.
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It didn’t take the firefighters long to remove the fish and get back to work tackling the fire.
He added that other departments have had troubled with salamanders getting in dry hydrants, but he’s “never heard tell of fish.”
Carey said he has no idea how the fish got up into the dry hydrant – which was professionally installed and has screens to prevent large items from getting inside.
“They may have been living there. I’m not sure, because they were just big enough to get through – or just big enough not to get through.”
Carey said they’re going to inspect the dry hydrant to see if there is anything wrong. He added that the hydrant was installed according to Department of Environment and Department of Fishery standards, and as far as they know, the screens are in place.
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