Fire Protection in Sharman park:
You may be aware of the fire in a shed in November of 2022. The Nanaimo Fire Rescue promptly attended the fire; however they found that the fire hydrant closest to the fire source was not operational. When that hydrant didn't work, they assumed that all other hydrants in the park were unreliable.

They had to send a truck out of the park to secure a water supply. Four trucks eventually showed up and two of them had to redeploy back to the city water supply to gather more water to continue the fire. Thankfully the fire was put out before it could spread to any nearby homes, despite the explosion of several propane tanks; if it had been a windy day, the result could easily have been much more disastrous. The shed was destroyed and some siding was melted on a home. If the attack on the fire had started just a few minutes later, the result could have been extremely worse. No one has stepped forward to explain the lack of operational ability of that hydrant to assist in making improvements in the future.

Nanaimo City Bylaw 7108 governs the safety protocols required for fire hydrant on private property. It is the property owner's responsibility to have the hydrant inspected and tested on an annual basis and submit the reports required by the bylaw to the City. Jane has copies of all those inspections at her park manager's office. Although there was a proper inspection performed on the hydrant in question, it had somehow been inadvertently turned off during the period it was in most need. For safety's sake, proper and stringent protocols need to be established in the event that a hydrant has temporarily been disabled.

It should be noted that there are only 4 fire hydrants in the park. Three are on Mayfair Street and one near the end of Sharman Park Drive. If you live on Columbia or Duke Streets there are no fire hydrants on your street. You should check that this does not conflict with any statements in your home insurance policy. A 2001 Nanaimo City Bylaw 2704 requires every home to be within 60 metres of a hydrant for parks constructed when the bylaw was in effect.

On June 5, 2023, several park members had a discussion with Fire Chief Tim Doyle. His remarks were that hydrants within the park are deemed private and not tested by the city. Since they are private, the Fire Department (FD) can not determine the reports of inspections submitted. Tim Doyle said that only the park can give us the information when requested (though not required to do so). Tim said he was aware of the reports from our park and conveyed that he thought our park was in compliance. During a June 5 town council meeting, counselor Armstrong expressed interest in looking into ways to allow the home owners access to the inspection records, which could be a cost free method of policing compliance (Doyle had stated that no fines have been levied for non-compliance, so either the parks are performing well or the system is missing overdue inspections).

Tim Doyle assured us that fire protection will be provided, regardless of hydrant assistance from park facilities, which he described as just one of many tools at the departments disposal to handle emergencies. Our development was constructed under the codes that existed when built and no bylaws have been passed to require upgrades to current standards (bylaw 2704 applies to parks constructed after 6/7/2001). Forcing existing parks to comply would be expensive and the costs would likely qualify for the landlord to apply for a rent increase (see section 33(1)b). If the park upgrades the water utilities, the development department of the city may decide to enforce bylaw 2704 for hydrants during the permitting process under section 4(1)(a) of 2704, which would mean a hydrant within 60m of every home.

The major outcome from our discussion was that the Fire Department will protect our homes irregardless of the hydrant situation. His station has a 6 minute response time to our park and there are usually 4 trucks sent from the various fire stations when an emergency happens. Each truck carries 900 feet of hose, so they could reach 3600 feet for water to other hydrant if they had to. Also the tankers usually carry 300-500 gallons and usually there'll be more than one. We are fortunate to live in an urban area surrounded by adequate water feeds. We were highly assured by the Fire Chief that protection is not greatly diminished if hydrants are nonexistent or dysfunctional.


We were able to map out the survey lines that were painted within the park in early 2023 after not being able to procure an official report. The size of these mains are not known to us.

In the park there are also 4 stand pipes (connections where pressure can be put into the water system, usually via pumper trucks, to provide outflow pressures at the hydrants); one near the entrance of the park, one between units 73 and 74, one at the NE corner near home depot, and the other at the end of the street near unit 90 (which is tapped in the summer to a lawn sprinkler system). It was surprising that one of the streets has no water mains down the street at all (home's water supplies comes from the main in the street to the South).

 
Water lines drawn in purple.
 

 
Water supply from Aulds to Sharman Park.
 

 
City water mains surrounding the park.
 

 
City water mains in the neighborhood.