(18 Feb 2025)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Louisville, Colorado – 30 December 2021
1. Various of fire and smoke as cars flee
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Louisville, Colorado – 13 February 2025
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Kurt Kowar, Director of Public Works & Utilities, City of Louisville:
"As fires are happening more and more to communities, we learn that water systems are impacted both during the firefighting but also afterwards in ways we never understood or ever thought about, how to think about as an industry."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Superior, Colorado – 31 December 2021
3. Various of homes burned homes and cars
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Louisville, Colorado – 13 February 2025
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Thomas Czajka, Operations technician, City of Louisville:
"The night of the fire, we realized a lot of these burned homes were leaking water out of the foundations. So we made a decision to shut off the water mains in the neighborhood so the firefighters could have water."
5. Various of technicians Jack Manian and Thomas Czajka installing water meter with remote shutoff valve
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Thomas Czajka, Operations technician, City of Louisville:
"When you respond to the fire, you’re asking people to put their lives at risk that aren’t even first responders. They’re people that operate water systems or they’re just an average person off the street. These things are testing what we designed life for. And we now have to start thinking in new ways to be resilient and survive better."
7. Various of technicians Jack Manian and Thomas Czajka installing water meter with remote shutoff valve
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Thomas Czajka, Operations technician, City of Louisville:
“We’re in the rebuild zone after the Marshall Fire and there are about 500 homes that burned down.”
9. Various of construction around neighborhood
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Thomas Czajka, Operations technician, City of Louisville:
"We are putting in Zenner water meters that have a remote shut off valve."
11. Detail of water meter
12. Various of technicians installing meter with remote shut off valve
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Kurt Kowar, Director of Public Works & Utilities, City of Louisville:
"We came up with a new configuration for water meters, which is the connection from the house to the main system.”
14. Detail of backflow preventer
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Kurt Kowar, Director of Public Works & Utilities, City of Louisville:
“The backflow valve keeps contamination from getting into the system, and the remote shut off valve keeps the water system from bleeding out into the property."
16. Various of technicians reinstalling lids and tightening them down.
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Kurt Kowar, Director of Public Works & Utilities, City of Louisville:
"As an industry, what our next steps forward like? Are we going to keep dealing with this as individuals or are we going to start trying to create some higher level standards so that everyone can be more prepared or build their systems better before they have a fire? That’s the million dollar question right now."
18. Technicians taking gps measure of water meter
19. Wide of public works truck in front of home where meter and remote shutoff valves are a being installed
STORYLINE:
As a firestorm whipped through Boulder County on December 30, 2021, burning homes and businesses, technicians for the City of Louisville Department of Public Works and Utilities suddenly became front line workers.
Hydrants trickled. Pumps and treatment plants lost power. Chemical contaminants were sucked into pipes. And water utility technicians worked swiftly to manage all of it.
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