Nearly 10 Percent Of Hydrants Don't Work, Union Says

"It's outrageous," Mendelson said. "There should not be 10 percent of fire hydrants out of service, nor should there be any confusion about what the correct number is."

In neighboring counties with newer infrastructure, there are few problems. The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission maintains about 40,000 hydrants in Prince George's County and more than 20,000 in Montgomery County. Of those, about a dozen in various locations were out of commission on a recent day, and repairs were imminent, officials said.

In Baltimore and Baltimore County, where there are about 22,000 hydrants, 91 are out of service, according to Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for the Baltimore Public Works Department, which also oversees hydrants in the county. The fire departments in the city and county conduct quarterly tests to maintain them, Kocher said.

In the District, WASA said it tests hydrants every other year. But D.C. firefighters said that the testing actually has been happening every three years and that the department wants it done annually.

On city streets, there is a fire hydrant on almost every block.

In the Bloomingdale neighborhood, at Flagler Place and V Street NW, a lime-green hydrant had a collar yesterday that read "Maintenance Required," to the dismay of Maxine Sumner-Clark, who lives a half-block away. She said several vacant homes in the area have caught fire in recent years, and there is a construction site across from the hydrant -- even more reason, she said, to have a fully functioning fire hydrant on the corner.

"If it doesn't work, it concerns me," Sumner-Clark said. "Big time."

Staff writer Candace Rondeaux contributed to this report.