A lot of larger, new construction houses in areas including Cherry Hills and Greenwood Village are facing more stringent regulations for fire protection requirements. We recently worked with a client who was required to add a fire hydrant to meet South Metro Fire Rescue fire flow and hydrant spacing requirements. They were unable to obtain their Certificate of Occupancy until the hydrant was added. Sounds simple, but Denver Water does indeed require a set of Fire Hydrant Construction Drawings (signed/sealed by a Colorado Licensed Professional Engineer) and signed by South Metro Fire. The plans outline every last detail of how/where the hydrant will be installed.
Meeting fire flow demands for these larger homes can be difficult as in many cases the original subdivision was constructed with only 6″ water mains (as compared to 8″ which most subdivisions now have) and since a lot of the homes are now pushing 10,000-12,0000 square feet they are being forced to install sprinklers to meet IFC requirements.
