Scumbag developers for sure but no one is surprised by that.
I sure hope it wasn’t but are a ton of things that just don’t add up here. Fire dept didn’t respond in time, fire hydrants didn’t put out water when opened, sirens never sounded etc etc.
You’d be surprised how common this is. Most often from lack of maintenance but also something as simple and dumb as the lead valve not being open. Here’s a picture of a hydrant we’re currently using that’s not that old but needed some TLC before it would open up. Here’s also a picture of a hydrant manufactured in 1936 that’s still in operation and we plan to use for temp water next week. We’ll see if it actually works.
Yeah they should be testing hydrants at least annually. If not that is a dereliction of duty. We dont have hydrants on our street and rely on trucked in water for any fires but thankfully the fire dept is close and they respond quickly.