The harsh winter has taken a toll on Toronto’s fire hydrants, but city and fire department officials insist it’s not impacting public safety.

Paul Clements, manager of operations with Toronto Water, said 266 hydrants are currently out of service due to a mix of reasons including frozen pipes, construction and maintenance repairs.

“We have experienced a higher than normal number of frozen hydrants and we do have crews that are out thawing those hydrants but there is definitely a backlog,” Clements explained.

Clements told 680News fire protection is not an issue because the city has construction standards that stipulate there must be a hydrant in place every 100 metres.

“That is redundancy built in exactly for this reason. If there is a hydrant that is out of service then the fire department has the opportunity to go to multiple hydrants, not just one,” he said.

There are 50,000 hydrants across the city. Toronto fire crews are notified by Toronto Water long before they roll up on the scene of a fire which hydrants are operable and which are not.

“The people within Toronto can rest assured that Toronto Fire knows where our hydrants are and we know which ones are rendered inoperative. As they approach your house they will know which hydrant to take,” said Captain Stephan Powell, a public information officer with the Toronto Fire Services.

“Our crews have a computer terminal in each apparatus and they are notified immediately that this hydrant has been flagged as not in service.”

Toronto Water also has a regular maintenance and replacement program.

Clements said if anyone from the general public comes across a hydrant that appears damaged or leaking, they should call 311 to report it. He said staff will investigate immediately.