Who's responsible for digging out hydrants in the Moncton area after a storm?

Thousands dot municipal streets and are now half or fully buried, and someone has to dig them out. 

In the Moncton area, a mix of contractors and city crews are responsible for digging out fire hydrants. 

Dieppe has an adopt-a-hydrant program, encouraging its residents to handle clearing a one metre space around a hydrant and opening a path to the street. Moncton in the past has asked for residents to do the same during large back-to-back storms, but says it hasn't reached that point yet.

Dieppe spokesperson Julie Albert said the city has 1,531 fire hydrants. City crews tackle the job after streets and sidewalks are completely plowed, though not necessarily after each storm. 

"The amount of snow received in the last couple of days has definitely made the task more challenging," Albert said in an email Monday.

Environment Canada's website shows 149.6 centimetres of snow fell this month, with almost 40 over the weekend.

Julien Boudreau, a district chief with the Dieppe fire department, said quick access to hydrants is important when firefighters arrive. The trucks firefighters arrive with can carry some water, but that can quickly run out and they use the hydrants to provide a steady supply. 

"The first five minutes of a fire are the most important," Boudreau said. He said firefighters have a large number of priorities in those early minutes. If they have to shovel a hydrant, it can change what they decide they can do. 

"Depending on what we have in front of us, having to shovel out a hydrant could delay us in being able to attack other priorities," Boudreau said.

He said the department has plans in place for the winter, and usually staff from the city's public works department are also dispatched to help shovel if necessary. 

In Moncton, the city uses six to seven contractor companies to clear snow from the majority of the city's 3,320 hydrants. 

Isabelle LeBlanc, Moncton's director of communications, said those contractors are given a go-ahead by the city and usually complete the work in about 24 to 30 hours. 

City employees handle about 10 per cent that are in the downtown area. 

The Town of Riverview doesn't have a formal adopt-a-hydrant program, but town spokesperson Meghan Cross said help from residents is encouraged. 

Moncton once had a program, and may bring it back at some point, LeBlanc said. 

"When there are a lot of storms back-to-back, certainly any help that we can get from residents is very much appreciated from our crews," LeBlanc said. 

"Anytime we can keep those fire hydrants as clear as possible, then obviously we minimize the risk of an emergency or an unfortunate situation happening."

Environment Canada's forecast shows showers Thursday followed by more snow Friday and Saturday