10:00 PM CDT on Monday, April 24, 2006

By Jeremy Desel / 11 News

Fighting fires is tough, and it's even tougher without water.

11 News has discovered some master communities that are being built without fire hydrants, and that's not all.

They are pitched as pristine, an extension of the city but with nature at your doorstep

Part of the deal is being out supposedly in the middle of nowhere.

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Many master communities don't have fire hydrants and there is no room for pumper trucks to get close to fight fires.

No place is growth more evident than in northwest Harris County . Here subdivisions are popping up almost faster than anyone can count

But Lee Sulaski is counting and he feels like he has to.

"We only have one subdivision in our district that has a public water supply system with actual fire hydrants," said Capt. Lee Sulaski.

That's one out of 10.

"We have three [subdivisions] more going in. None of them have hydrants at all," said Capt. Sulaski.

The Rosehill Volunteer Fire Department is tasked with covering fire and EMS service for a 47-square-mile area squeezed in between Tomball and Fairfield.

Like so many others it is filling in with developments advertised as 'No MUD taxes'.

To fire crews that translates not to money savings, but to potential trouble

"The risk is we'll lose the house or possibly somebody's life because we cant get to them in time," said Capt. Sulaski.

In some cases, they can't get to them at all.

For example, "This is the only way into that area," said Capt. Sulaski said about one road.

It's a small road with a smaller private bridge, It would be a tight squeeze in a regular-sized truck

It is clearly marked as having a weight limit of 15 tons. The trouble is a fire pumper filled with water weighs three times that.

"A tanker with 3,000 gallons of water on it you are talking 55,000 or 60,000 pounds. There is no way to try and take them across there, Capt. Sulaski said.

This is not a one-time case. Harris County has dozens.

In Fort Bend County officials distributed a list of bridges that may pose problems for fire trucks to every fire department

There are 61 bridges that are not able to hold the load of a typical fire truck . Some will barely hold a small booster truck.

Montgomery, Brazoria and Galveston Counties all have them, too, but in places where there are no hydrants, heavy tankers are virtually the only option.

Harris County recently established a set of guidelines for developers planning to establish subdivisions in the unincorporated county

It specifies how to build a dry hydrant system, one that pumps water from retention ponds. That could help in the event of a fire.

"There is no requirement to use these but the service is there and we make it available," said Capt. Sulaski.

One reason is even dry hydrants can have a big impact on insurance rates.

The Insurance Service Office (ISO) issues a rating assigned to localities. The ratings start at 1 for the best and 10 is considered unprotected.

The number is important to you even if you've never heard of it.

The difference between a rating of 4 and a 9 can be several hundred dollars a year for every homeowner.

The easiest way to improve ratings is to have water and easy access but, "There really isn't a whole lot that can be done from our standpoint," said Capt. Sulaski.

"It is not what are you going to do if, it is what you are going to do when, Because it is going to happen," he said.

And it will be a struggle. The only question is when.