It is one of urban summer’s most iconic images: kids frolicking on the asphalt in front of the cooling spray of an open fire hydrant. Wrenching open the street-side water pumps is also one of the city’s most enduring illicit seasonal practices. But for overheated children, an open hydrant provides what New York Times writer N. R. Kleinfeld once called “the ocean of their imagination.” It enables “the recreation of last resort,” especially for residents for whom an air-conditioned house isn’t a given, a trip to the nearest public pool is an infrequent luxury, and to whom the sandy shores of Lake Michigan may seem as remote as a crater on the silver surface of the moon.
No junk-shop craftsmanship or safecracking skills are necessary to enjoy an open hydrant in New York City. Any resident 18 or older can stop by the local firehouse and request the installation of a free “spray cap,” which emits a sprinklerlike stream and restricts the hydrant flow to 25 gallons per minute from the 1,000 gallons per minute that escape while uncapped.
