Heat Wave Hydrant

There are 100,000 fire hydrants in New York City, and, on hot summer days, many of them are opened for children to play. The New York Times wrote in 1994 that the hydrants became “the lifeline of summer, spewing cooling excitement to all around it.” The article explained, “Many of these hydrants are in neighborhoods where children have little access to decent parks or pools. The fire hydrant becomes the ocean of their imagination.”

The city once banned the opening of hydrants — The Times reported the first instances as early as 1904, when a street cleaner inadvertently left a wrench beside a fire hydrant and one mischievous boy braved opening the hydrant. The city began distributing sprinkler caps in the 1950s to allow people to legally use hydrants and reduce the amount of wasted water.

Certain blocks were also designated as “play streets,” which would close to traffic to avoid the risk of children getting hit by cars. During a heat wave in July 1982, West 114th Street between what are now Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards was closed between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., where our photographer captured one New Yorker doing gymnastics near an open hydrant.