Fire Hydrant & Charged Riser Systems

Fire hydrant and charged riser systems provide a means to deliver water to the Fire Service on large sites and within buildings to permit manual fire fighting and rescue activities.

Argus’s experienced team are able to assist you with the engineering, design, installation, maintenance and testing of fire hydrant and charged riser systems.

Codes and Standards
Fire hydrant and charged riser systems within buildings should be designed, installed, maintainedand tested in
accordance with the requirements of NZS4541 –
Fire Hydrant Systems For Buildings.

Site fire hydrant systems should be designed, installed, maintained and tested in accordance with the requirements of SNZ PAS4509 – New Zealand Fire Service Fire Fighting Water Supplies Code of Practice.

Terminology
There are a number of different terms that have been used to describe different types of risers within buildings, these are explained below.

Dry Riser
A vertical pipe installed in a building for fire fighting
purposes, fitted with inlet connections at fire brigade access level and landing valves at specified points. The pipe is normally dry and is charged with water by pumping from Fire Service appliances.

Dry risers were installed to NZS 4510:1978 and are no longer permitted for new buildings. It is recommended that existing dry risers are converted to a charged riser, on a reasonably practicable basis.

Wet Riser
A vertical pipe installed in a building for fire fighting purposes and permanently charged with water from a pressurized supply sufficient for fire fighting, and fitted with landing valves at
specified points.

Wet risers were installed to superseded editions of NZS4510 and are now not normally installed.

Charged Riser
A hydrant main installed in a building for fire fighting purposes, fitted with inlet connections at fire brigade access level and outlet assemblies at specified points. The riser is normally pressurised with water for monitoring purposes via a small diameter pipe connection. Water for fire fighting purposes is provided by pumping water into the inlet from the fire service appliances.