Fire Hydrant information in public records

[Sources for this page]

The Government Records Service is a useful resource for learning about the history of fire hydrants, but only for a certain time period. Link to their website: https://www.grs.gov.hk/. I only knew about the records service after reading City Unseen's article about Heavy Draw-off hydrants https://cityunseen.hk/huge-fire-hydrants/, shout-out to City Unseen for including sources in their pages. I say this because there are many fire hydrant slop online that don't cite sources.

To use the service

Most (if not all, but I am not sure) of the records are not digitised, so you have to visit the Hong Kong Public Records Building in Kwun Tong in person. You have to register an account with a working email, then make an application to "loan" the record you want to read. If the item is stored in the building, you just have to wait a few dozen minutes for the staff to get it for you. If the record is stored off-site, you have to "reserve" the item ahead of time online, the staff will contact you when the item is ready to be accessed at the building, you have to let the staff know the day you would visit the building to view the item. From my experience, it can take up to two weeks for the off-site items to be ready so you have to be patient.

If it is your first time accessing records, the staff will ask to view your ID. You need a 5HKD coin to use the locker for storing your bag (the reception might have spare 5HKD coins you can borrow, but don't rely on that). You have to wear gloves (provided at the reception) when handling the records. If you want to write notes on yourr notebook or something, you can only bring pencils inside the record reading area (pencils are provided at the reception), no pens or markers are allowed.

If you want to photograph the records, you can only use a hand-held device, so no tripods or scanners, and you have to write a form to let staff know what pages you photographed. And I don't know if you can use the photograph for any purpose other than your own research, the wording is ambiguous. For example, it doesn't say what constitutes personal research, like for example this website, I am doing fire hydrant research for myself without earning anything, but I am sharing it publicly online, is it ok to use these photographs after I give credit to the service? I don't know. Just to be safe, I will only quote or digitally recreate graphics of the records, but not use the photographs.

What to look for

You can look for annual and quarterly reports of the Fire Services Department and Fire Brigade (Fire Services Department used to be called Fire Brigade), but you have to find the section about hydrants and/or water supply. I also recommend reading the fire hydrant installation and removal records. There are many pages of those records (I am pretty sure there are at least a thousand pages of those) so it will take a while to read them all, but you can find some interesting information if you are patient and dedicated. There are installation and removal records for fire hydrant in general, but also for a specific type of hydrant called the "Pedestal". Here is a list of records that I know of that are relevant:

Limitation

There are many years of records that are not available. Maybe it is just me missing something, but I think most information we can find are about fire hydrants in the 1960s~1970s. The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during the second world war may have resulted in the lost of older documents. There were records of the Fire Brigade from late 1940s to 1950s, but I did not find anything useful in those records. I wish we can find information on fire hydrants in Hong Kong in the 1890s but alas. Most of the times, the annual reports of the Fire Brigade, later Fire Services Department, just repeated the statements that the hydrants had been inspected and # number of new hydrants had been installed, with almost no mention of specific hydrant types or other potentially useful information (to us hydrant enthusiasts). The mention of Heavy Draw-off hydrants in the 1961-62 annual report was an exception.

If you intend to read the hydrant installation records, be aware that the road / street names and sketch maps provided in the records may not be reliable, as the road / street names and layout may have changed. Pay attention to other information such as where the hydrant is receiving water from, if you want to find that hydrant in Google Maps street view or even visit it yourself.

Hydrant symbols in maps

In the installation records, you can occasionally find maps showing the location of proposed / already installed hydrant(s) with certain symbols. From what I have seen so far in sketch maps in installation records:

• a red dotted circle represented a Ground Hydrant that was removed / resited
• a filled arrow represented an existing Swan Neck, a dotted one means it was removed / resited
• a filled rectangle represented a "Pedestal hydrant", a dotted one means it was removed / resited
• a filled double arrow represented a "Double Head Swan Neck"
• a filled diamond represented a Heavy Draw-off hydrant, a dotted one means it was removed / resited

There are also some big fold-out maps, in which a red filled circle without halo represented an existing "Pedestal hydrant", while ones with blue halo represented proposed "Pedestal hydrants".