Cleveland Firefighters were held up by a dead fire hydrant when they went to tackle a house fire Wednesday morning.
The fire on Joan Avenue started on the front porch of the home and sent a baby girl and her mother to the hospital.
Family members say they were woken up by neighbors around 7 a.m. and were alerted about the fire. They frantically looked for the two-year-old girl.
“All that time, they wasted, trying to open that fire hydrant, they probably could've saved more than what they had," said the toddler's grandmother Mariam Pagan.
City Councilwoman Dona Brady confirmed the firefighters did not know the closest fire hydrant to the house was not working. The fire crews had to resort to using their emergency water supply in their truck.
“They have a pumper, which is a fire truck that carries a lot of water in it, and so they were able to start with the pumper,” she said, “Then, connect to the fire hydrant, down the street.”
Brady says she is looking into what went wrong.
“I’m going to request that all fire hydrants in my ward [Ward 11] are turned on, checked, and make sure that they are in working order,” she said.
Brady said the fire hydrants that are not working will be removed.
“So there is not a false sense of security that there is a fire hydrant,” she said.
According to the Cleveland Water Department, there have been no notices of non-working fire hydrants in the area since 2013. The department is still looking into the issue.
The cause of the fire is also under investigation.
Meanwhile, Pagan lost all of her furniture and most of her belongings. She was only able to save some clothes and important papers.
The family says thankfully everyone made it out of the fire, but they don't have renter's insurance. They have set up a Go Fund Me page for expenses.
