SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (KMTR) -- Police say at least six hydrants were illegally opened overnight Friday and Saturday. Springfield Police are asking for the public’s help in finding who’s behind the vandalism.
Reports of the first open hydrant were called in Friday, around 11 p.m. Police say a hydrant on the corner of Mill and Main was gushing water into the street. Firefighters had to come out to turn it off.
Saturday night, calls for leaky hydrants poured into 911. Officers say six hydrants were opened over the course of just a couple hours. The hydrants targeted were in the same area. At 8:20 p.m., a hydrant on the corner of F Street and 16th; At 8:31 p.m., a hydrant on the corner of 18th and Centennial Boulevard; and between 9:15 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. there were four more hydrants hit. They were all on, or near, 16th Street, between B and I Streets.
Springfield police say they are taking the vandalism very seriously because opening fire hydrants is a crime.
“The danger is that you're putting an awful lot of water out into the roadway, pretty quickly,” says Sgt. Robert Jones with the Springfield Police Department. “It can be a danger to people [who] are passing by in vehicles, a danger for pedestrians. Overflows the storm drains. I mean, it just causes a lot of problems. It's just something that somebody shouldn't be doing,” says Jones. He says it’s not often that this happens. He says he can’t remember the last time anyone opened a fire hydrant illegally.
Police are urging anyone who may have saw something to come forward. You can call the Springfield Police non-emergency number at 541-726-3714.
Sgt. Jones says fire hydrants are not easy to open. You need a special tool, and a lot of strength. He suspects someone either found the tool, or possibly stole it from a fire scene.
