Janna Lake feels uncomfortable driving towards the 1634 Mt. Vernon Ave. residence her and her husband Randy share in the Westmoreland Historical District.

Nearing her home, she passes a hole between two houses where 1945 Mt. Vernon Ave. once stood. Lake’s neighbors of three years, Barbie and Herman Harrison, lost their home there in a June 9 fire. In its absence, Janna lost her peace of mind amidst concerns over the adequacy of her neighborhood’s 4-inch water lines.

“Many nights I haven’t slept I am so worried,” said Janna, an independent business contractor working as a business manager with HowardModels.com. “It was devastating to drive by the Harrison’s house after the fire. I’m terrified.”

Janna’s employer Ed Howard said he has found a temporary solution which could soothe fears in the neighborhood for the near future. Presented with a map of Westmoreland’s hydrants, Howard said his experience rendering and modeling architectural designs granted him a fresh perspective.

“No one on the street has a problem with water pressure,” Howard said of Westmoreland’s current piping network. “The 4-inch pipes work fine for everything besides putting out fires. The 6-inch mains are in general working fine. All they have to do is take the existing 6-inch pipes and hook a hydrant to them.”

Howard said he thinks new hydrants should tap into Westmoreland’s preexisting 6-inch mains. Such a move would increase water volume for potential fires, he said, and thus ease Westmoreland residents’ concerns. In the meantime, he said, the city of Toledo can continue working on upgrading all of Mt. Vernon’s 4-inch mains into 8-inch mains.

“Ultimately the plan to put in an eight-inch pipe will happen,” Howard said. “This is a quick solution to the problem at hand.”

Toledo Director of the Department of Public Utilities Tom Kroma said July 6 Howard’s idea caught his attention at a June 30 Westmoreland Neighborhood Association meeting at St. Francis de Sales High School. After testing the feasibility of the plan’s five locations, he said, his department would install three new hydrants on Mt. Vernon.

“We are thankful for Mr. Howard’s suggestions,” Kroma said July 6. He refused comment on the cost or time span of the city’s 8-inch main replacement project.

A July 8 press release issued by Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s office said the mayor authorized work on three new Mt. Vernon hydrant installations for later this week. The release said the hydrants were planned for locations northeast of Parkside Boulevard, at Clarendon Drive and at Woodruff Avenue. All three hydrants would tap into preexisting 6-inch mains, the release said. The move came after the findings of a July 1 report conducted by an independent, three-person panel appointed by Mayor Finkbeiner to investigate the fire.

“I sincerely regret that this accident occurred and the dramatic affect it has on you and your family,” Finkbeiner said to the Harrisons in the release. “I hope this independent report has helped answer your questions.”

Ed Howard

The panel’s July 1 report recommended the Department of Public Utilities should share its computerized data on hydrant gallons per minute (GPM) ratings and water line locations with the Toledo Fire Department. In addition, the report said, hydrants with low GPM levels should receive color-coding as a warning to firefighters.

Ben Konop, a Democratic mayoral candidate and current Lucas County Commissioner, condemned the panel’s findings in a July 9 press release.

“While we can’t know the Harrisons’ pain, I think all Toledoans should share their frustration over the Finkbeiner administration’s report detailing the tragedy of the Harrisons’ home burning to the ground,” Konop said in the release. “The fact remains that an insufficient fire hydrant and a small water main played major roles in the Harrison’s loss, it’s clear that firefighters had no idea where sufficient fire hydrants and water lines were located when they arrived on scene, and all of these things could have been different had there been common-sense protocols established over the last two decades.”

Konop also blamed Finkbeiner and independent mayoral candidate Mike Bell in the July 9 release for the policies making the June 9 fire difficult to extinguish.

“Frankly and unfortunately, the report appears to be a cover-up vehicle for the current administration and for the man Carty Finkbeiner has picked to succeed him,” Konop said in the release. “Mike Bell was Toledo’s fire chief for 17 years, worked under Mr. Finkbeiner, and was in charge when the city painted over its fire hydrants and gave control of the water mains to the public utilities department. Politics of the past now seem to be standing in the way of safety for Toledo residents and firefighters and impeding accountability in local government. We simply cannot afford for this to continue.”

Barbie said she admired Howard’s interim plan but worried about what it meant for public awareness towards 4-inch mains. Currently renting a home in the city’s Old Orchard area, she said her family’s misfortune should serve to “wake up” citizens about Toledo’s water lines.

“My reaction is that this is doing something rather than nothing,” Barbie said. “It is like a bandage on an open sore. My one concern is that the momentum we have will be lost and people will forget about this. This is not a fix-all.”

Randy said if one person is startled by the fire, it is him. He said the Harrison’s loss was a tragedy which caught him and his wife completely unawares. He and his wife were so unnerved, he said, they installed new smoke detectors.

“I heard the sirens that night and didn’t even get up,” Randy said of the June 9 conflagration. “That is how little I expected a fire in my neighborhood. It shocked me to know people could lose their home so quickly.”

Konop said he considered Howard’s plan “a creative potential solution in the short-term for the city.” He said he wondered whether or not the plan held greater implications for Toledo’s 4-inch lines.

“Mr. Howard’s proposal is a good one as it recognizes the threat posed by the 4-inch lines,” Konop said. “Most importantly, it could add to the safety of people in their homes. My one question is whether this is applicable to all the neighborhoods with 4-inch lines.”

Howard said he believes his plan could impact other regions of Toledo with 4-inch piping. More importantly, he said, his idea could help the city during tough economic times.

“Obviously the city is currently not flushed with cash,” he said. “The bottom line is if this works they can possibly solve the 4-inch problem city wide for a fraction of the cost.”

Doug Nims, a member of Mayor Finkbeiner’s investigative fire panel, said he visited the site of the fire June 30 before submitting the report to Finkbeiner’s office July 1. He said he admired the Harrison’s strength in the wake of their loss.

“Meeting with the Harrisons I learned how disappointed they are about losing their house,” Nims said. “They’re pretty generous people. If anything like this ever happens to me I hope to God I have the presence of mind they did.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Breaking News, Community.
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