McAlester volunteers repainted 21 hydrants after firefighters reported difficulty locating some hydrants during emergency responses

By Hayden Tucker
McAlester News-Capital

MCALESTER, Okla. — Volunteers worked over the weekend to repaint 21 fire hydrants that needed upgrades around the city of McAlester.

Benny Brooks, McAlester assistant fire chief, approached Lace Fields, director of Keep McAlester Beautiful, about repainting fire hydrants. Brooks told Fields of a time the department was responding to a fire at night and could not find a nearby hydrant.

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As the sun rose, the firefighters discovered there was a hydrant near the fire, but they couldn’t see it due to its dark green shade. The department requested that KMB re-paint the hydrants a highly visible yellow.

On July 11, KMB had 11 people volunteer their time to paint the hydrants. They split into two teams and painted 21 total fire hydrants.

The color of a fire hydrant depends on its water pressure. The fire department plans to go through the yellow hydrants, test their water pressure and paint the caps of the hydrants with the appropriate color, but leave the rest of the hydrant yellow.

Fields said projects like painting fire hydrants can encourage others to make McAlester a clean place.

“We want our town to look beautiful,” Fields said. “We want to be able to take pride in it and to do that we have to start little by little improving it. And this is one of those little steps that we take. If we take pride in our fire hydrants, we’ll take pride in our yards. If the fire hydrant looks good, maybe people will clear it away a little more because there’s so much brush grown over them.”

Painting is one of several types of projects KMB hosts. The group also organizes litter pickups and weed removals.

In August, KMB is organizing “seal at your leisure,” in which they have identified eight murals that need to be sealed and volunteers can offer to seal the mural.

To get involved with Keep McAlester Beautiful, contact 918-424-9988.

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