With the temperature rising around the District this week, surely some may be tempted to go old school and crack open one of the city’s fire hydrants in search of some refreshment. But the city is getting an early start on reminding residents that they would really prefer it if you let the hydrants be. This morning, we got the usual reminder from the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department and DC Water that resident residents who tamper with the city’s hydrants are potentially to blame when firefighters are unable to find a working water supply.

DC WASA and the D.C. Fire & EMS Department provided Mayor Fenty’s office with a list of potential trouble spots for water-related firefighting issues in the wake of the big fire at Peggy Cooper Cafritz’s house, and WUSA9 has a copy. Among the reasons given why an area might be listed are “small water mains, hydrant configuration, topography, access, and the possibility of private hydrants not regulated by WASA.” Fire Department spokesperson Pete Piringer is…

Find out! DC WASA has developed a Google Earth-based fire hydrants file for the whole city, showing where in- and out-of-service hydrants are. Their web site has the Google Earth KMZ file, as well as a help document on how to use it (basically, just add it to Google Earth). The pink dots are the non-working hydrants and the purple ones are the working ones. It’s kind of busy, with hydrant number labels all over…

The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority sent around word this morning that too many people, especially in Southeast, have been opening up fire hydrants during the heat wave over the past few days, and water pressure in some areas is now very low as a result. The agency says they’d really, really like it if you would stop opening up those hydrants and playing in the resulting spraying water.The public is reminded that unauthorized use…