 A serious question of safety is being asked after a fire hydrant failed during a Hazelton firefight. In the case of a fire, there's a chance the hydrant in front of your home won't function. Is the fire hydrant in your neighborhood working? Hundreds upon hundreds remain out of service in Kansas City. Defective hydrants risk lives. While technology and other firefighting equipment has been revamped, the hydrant has not been redesigned in over a century. Which ones work and which ones don't? They tried not one but two fire hydrants. The fire hydrant in front of this house failed. This hydrant right in front of the house was not working. So a former New York City firefighter has designed a hydrant that is virtually indestructible. As a firefighter, New York City firefighter, I recognized the need that there had to be a change in the reliability of a fire hydrant was. In a hundred years, there hasn't been no real significant change, even though we know where the issues and problems are. Well, fire hydrants are the critical part of the fire extinguishment tactic. A hydrant is as important as a firefighter. We have standards. We get to the scene within four minutes. We have set up time, which means connecting to a hydrant, stretching all his lines, another four minutes. And we expect that water to be on the fire in eight minutes. And when the hydrant is broken, we don't accomplish that. Through better engineering and better materials, we've come up with the solution. It's called the Sigilak Spartan Fire Hydrant. Here's your basic standard, conventional fire hydrant. And you can see how the corrosion on there exists, because they just put regular paint on there. It's totally vulnerable and accessible. These things can get damaged and bent. These can get cross-threaded. They throw debris inside. But the integrity of this hydrant is easily compromised, because everything's accessible and exposed to the elements. What I've done is I've deconstructed the fire hydrant and identified all the vulnerable parts of a hydrant that are known to break down and fail consistently. Now you can see, obviously, just by appearance how much different they look. You can notice that the water's going to come out as much higher, which is better for the firefighter to be able to put his thing on there. You have the snow pole. And all the integral parts are encapsulated inside the hydrant. So there's nothing where the elements can get to it. You can't put wrenches. There's nowhere to put a wrench on. You need a special tool to do that. So what I always do is come up with this tool, crack that open like that, spin that off, take that off. Now that everything's out of your way, the hydrant's in perfect working order. If I want to get water, it comes out like that. And then take the caps off. They come right off. Inside, up on top, you see there's a grease fitting. So it's a very simple, less complicated hydrant. And we're within 10 to 20 percent of the cost of a traditional hydrant. So we're not even that much more, but we do so much more. So cradle to grave, you can't afford not to have our hydrant in the ground. So we're in about a dozen U.S. states right now. We have 150 hydrants in the ground in those 12 states. And the reason there aren't more is because typically a municipality will want to buy one or two and put it through its paces over a four-season cycle and determine for themselves, let the fire department work on them extensively and determine that it doesn't leak, it doesn't freeze in the wintertime, it won't rust or corrode or break down. And then once that happens, they start to order more hydrants. People don't realize the need for hydrants until it's their house that's on fire and all of a sudden that hydrant's not working. And people yelling, screaming out of the building. And firefighters are putting their lives at risk. You know, and it's unnecessary. It's something that time has come. People believe they're just an ordinary fixture in the street. They are life-saving fire department appliances. They shouldn't be used, you know, for washing cars or for cleaning streets. People do not understand the importance of these types. When you're at a fire and a hydrant doesn't work and the firefighters are standing around and no one can get water out of the hose, then you understand how important a fire hydrant is.
 A serious question of safety is being asked after a fire hydrant failed during a Hazelton
 firefight.
 In the case of a fire, there's a chance the hydrant in front of your home won't function.
 Is the fire hydrant in your neighborhood working?
 Hundreds upon hundreds remain out of service in Kansas City.
 Defective hydrants risk lives.
 While technology and other firefighting equipment has been revamped, the hydrant has not been
 redesigned in over a century.
 Which ones work and which ones don't?
 They tried not one but two fire hydrants.
 The fire hydrant in front of this house failed.
 This hydrant right in front of the house was not working.
 So a former New York City firefighter has designed a hydrant that is virtually indestructible.
 As a firefighter, New York City firefighter, I recognized the need that there had to be
 a change in the reliability of a fire hydrant was.
 In a hundred years, there hasn't been no real significant change, even though we know where
 the issues and problems are.
 Well, fire hydrants are the critical part of the fire extinguishment tactic.
 A hydrant is as important as a firefighter.
 We have standards.
 We get to the scene within four minutes.
 We have set up time, which means connecting to a hydrant, stretching all his lines, another
 four minutes.
 And we expect that water to be on the fire in eight minutes.
 And when the hydrant is broken, we don't accomplish that.
 Through better engineering and better materials, we've come up with the solution.
 It's called the Sigilak Spartan Fire Hydrant.
 Here's your basic standard, conventional fire hydrant.
 And you can see how the corrosion on there exists, because they just put regular paint
 on there.
 It's totally vulnerable and accessible.
 These things can get damaged and bent.
 These can get cross-threaded.
 They throw debris inside.
 But the integrity of this hydrant is easily compromised, because everything's accessible
 and exposed to the elements.
 What I've done is I've deconstructed the fire hydrant and identified all the vulnerable
 parts of a hydrant that are known to break down and fail consistently.
 Now you can see, obviously, just by appearance how much different they look.
 You can notice that the water's going to come out as much higher, which is better for the
 firefighter to be able to put his thing on there.
 You have the snow pole.
 And all the integral parts are encapsulated inside the hydrant.
 So there's nothing where the elements can get to it.
 You can't put wrenches.
 There's nowhere to put a wrench on.
 You need a special tool to do that.
 So what I always do is come up with this tool, crack that open like that, spin that off,
 take that off.
 Now that everything's out of your way, the hydrant's in perfect working order.
 If I want to get water, it comes out like that.
 And then take the caps off.
 They come right off.
 Inside, up on top, you see there's a grease fitting.
 So it's a very simple, less complicated hydrant.
 And we're within 10 to 20 percent of the cost of a traditional hydrant.
 So we're not even that much more, but we do so much more.
 So cradle to grave, you can't afford not to have our hydrant in the ground.
 So we're in about a dozen U.S. states right now.
 We have 150 hydrants in the ground in those 12 states.
 And the reason there aren't more is because typically a municipality will want to buy
 one or two and put it through its paces over a four-season cycle and determine for themselves,
 let the fire department work on them extensively and determine that it doesn't leak, it doesn't
 freeze in the wintertime, it won't rust or corrode or break down.
 And then once that happens, they start to order more hydrants.
 People don't realize the need for hydrants until it's their house that's on fire and
 all of a sudden that hydrant's not working.
 And people yelling, screaming out of the building.
 And firefighters are putting their lives at risk.
 You know, and it's unnecessary.
 It's something that time has come.
 People believe they're just an ordinary fixture in the street.
 They are life-saving fire department appliances.
 They shouldn't be used, you know, for washing cars or for cleaning streets.
 People do not understand the importance of these types.
 When you're at a fire and a hydrant doesn't work and the firefighters are standing around
 and no one can get water out of the hose, then you understand how important a fire hydrant
 is.