There are some cities in the US (Ive never lived in an area this bad) where metal theft is common, but I sincerely doubt if fire hardware inside of apartment buildings would get stolen, ever.
Most of the times, when a fire hose is in a hallway, it has a glass door, which I am sure is not only so it can be gotten out without a key to be used in an emergency, its also so it would be immediately obvious if it wasn't there. Theft of them is not just uncommon, Ive never seen that happening. And Ive been in a hell of a lot of apartment buildings. i even lived very briefly (two weeks housesitting for somebody else) in an apartment building that had been taken over by its residents when the landlord defaulted on their taxes and utility bills. All of the fire equipment there was in good shape and the building passed fire inspections. It remained a tenant-owned building for another 20 years after that, so it must of had to have. It was a beautiful old "prewar" building, old buildings often are really well made. No plastic, just wood and metal.
That was in 1970s in New York City, and the neighborhood had lots of junkies, so there were desperate people.
Actually, come to think of it there was one fire violation I remember. One day my then girlfriend and I went out for the day and came back in the evening to find that a three wire, fairly robust extension cord had been installed in our apartment (which had power) that went out the window to the abandoned building next door. I dont remember seeing any light over there. But it was known that homeless people were squatting in that building.
We just left it there .
That was probably the most marginal neighborhood Ive ever lived in and it was actually a very livable area where people were friendly to one another. I never felt threatened there.
Quote from: SeanB on Today at 09:56:38Do they still have the brass pipe connections for the lay flat hoses, the hoses and the brass fittings on the ends of said hose. Here hose reels are common, and the reel is made from steel, has a steel valve on it and a plastic nozzle end, because if it is made from brass or aluminium it basically will not survive the night, though you often find them being used as impromptu car washing hoses or to wash the assorted "you really do not want to know what this is" from the exterior stairs, landings and walls.