Eight Feet Deep

The for­mer world’s largest hydrant and for­mer world’s sec­ond largest hydrant in Beau­mont, Texas.

Sigh! I really hate to do this. First it was the hur­ri­cane and now — this.

While doing some research this morn­ing I dis­cov­ered that, what had been the one­time world’s largest fire hydrant, was now the world’s third largest fire hydrant. I was afraid some­thing like this would happen.

Road­side Amer­ica, which fea­tures such pecu­liar­i­ties as civic arms (or hydrant) races, is where I learned of the news.

“Artist Blue Sky used his favorite park­ing lot in Colum­bia, South Car­olina, to unveil a four-story tall steel fire hydrant in Feb­ru­ary 2001.”

This large and lean­ing fire­plug is almost 10 feet taller than the cur­rent for­mer world’s largest hydrant, which is located in Elm Creek, Man­i­toba. It makes me won­der when will this mad­ness stop. For God’s sake, quit build­ing large fire hydrants! Get on with your lives! Do some­thing con­struc­tive. Visu­al­ize swirled peas, or something.

Well here in Beau­mont we can, at least, take com­fort in know­ing we have the world’s largest dalmatian-spotted fire hydrant. For now.