Stop the fearmongering, says Holyrood councillor
by Mark Squibb, The Shoreline
Holyrood councillor Mable Tilley is trying to squash rumours that the new fire hydrants installed along Salmonier Line are not reliable.
The six fire hydrants in question were installed in 2025 at a cost of $4,500 each for a total of $27,000, plus HST. There are no homes connected to the watermain that supplies the hydrants, and so to prevent water stagnation, the Town decided to not keep water flowing in the line. In an emergency situation, the job of opening the water line to provide water to the hydrants falls to the Town’s public works staff.
“I just wanted to clarify some rumours that are floating around the community,” said Tilley during council’s July 28 public meeting. “The hydrants are installed, they’re tested, and they are supported by an operational water supply system. These water supply systems are as easy as turning on a switch in the case of an emergency.”
Tilley added that for home insurance purposes, the hydrants are classified as active hydrants, and staff can provide homeowners with documentation highlighting the fact.
The capability of the town’s fire department, said Tilley, had also been called into question by some people over social media.
The fire department, said the councillor, boasts two fire trucks, each capable of holding 1,000 gallons of water. Tilley also noted the Town also has mutual aid agreements in place with neighbouring communities.
“Our fire department is a very trained, professional, fire department,” said Tilley. “It has an operational plan in place for anything that may happen in the community. We have an emergency preparedness plan… our public works (staff) are on call 24/7 for emergencies. It’s not uncommon for public works to be called out at 3 o’clock in the morning because of a water issue.”
Tilley said that in an emergency, public works staff will be immediately dispatched to turn on the water flow to the hydrants.
“I can’t stress the importance of obtaining facts from a reliable source,” added Tilley. “I think all of us here tonight are going to touch on that one way or another. We have a lot of false and misleading information that’s getting out there.”
Tilley encouraged anyone who has questions about Town operations or emergency preparedness pick up the phone and call the town hall or fire department.
“In the event of an emergency, the fire hydrants will be fired up, they will be there long before the 2,000 gallons of water is run out of by our fire department,” said Tilley. “I kindly ask that this kind of fear mongering please stop. It might be fine for someone to get on Facebook to rant on about something, but if you have somebody who’s not really aware of what’s going on, the truth of it is, it can cause a lot of fear, a lot of uneasiness, especially for seniors and vulnerable people.”