Alfred University students help local fire departments with hydrant mapping project

Students in a joint environmental studies and geology class at Alfred University have spent part of the fall 2025 semester surveying the village and town of Alfred to map the locations of fire hydrants. The information will aid local volunteer firefighters and emergency personnel responding to fires in the area.

The eight students are enrolled in the Fieldcraft-Outdoor Proficiency course taught by Nicole Munkwitz, environmental studies technician in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and assisted by Kristian Olson, assistant professor of geology. Munkwitz explained that the class teaches students basic skills like map and compass reading, and how to use pace of steps to determine distance.

"When working in the natural sciences, you tend to get jobs working with companies in the field. Employers expect you to have some spatial awareness so you can work independently," Munkwitz explained. "The first part of the class when we're in the field, there are no electronics allowed. Just maps, compasses and pace."

John Hosford, art librarian in the Scholes Library, also serves as fire chief for the A.E. Crandall Hook and Ladder Company in Alfred. Over the summer, he contacted Munkwitz to discuss students in the Fieldcraft-Outdoor Proficiency class possibly undertaking the hydrant survey-mapping project. Hosford said work done to replace water lines on the Sayles Street-Pine Hill Drive loop in the village, just south of campus, resulted in hydrants being relocated to the opposite sides of the street, which prompted him to reach out to Munkwitz.

"Most hydrants are re-installed on the opposite side of the road" during water line repair work, Hosford said, explaining that it prevents workers from disrupting the flow of water to hydrants. Water line repair work over the last two years at Alfred State College, which the A.E. Crandall Hook and Ladder serves, also resulted in hydrants being moved. Hosford said he felt it was time to survey hydrants to create an accurate map of their locations.

Students in the Fieldcraft-Outdoor Proficiency class have undertaken a community service initiative every year since 2014, when Otto Muller, emeritus professor of geology, taught the course. It was that year that the class's initial survey of hydrants in the town and village of Alfred was conducted. Other projects have included contributing to a 2015 study on a downtown beautification project; and several occasions in which students collaborated with IMPACT, Friends Improving Allegany County Trails, to determine maintenance needs-culvert repair, downed trees, i.e.-for public hiking trails in the county.

"What's nice about the service projects is the skills the students are learning make more sense to them," Munkwitz said.

Students who completed the hydrant survey were Rebecca Amdur-Kass, senior political science and environmental studies major from Potomac, MD; Isabella Imburgia, a junior art and design major from Rochester; Rhett Krieger, sophomore academic exploration, from East Aurora, NY; Lily Schena, senior sociology and environmental studies major from Olean, NY; Samantha Smit, senior environmental studies major from Columbiana, OH; Drew Smith, junior environmental studies major from Walworth, NY; Enrique Stolz, senior environmental studies major from New York City; and Becca Weaver, senior geology major from Hornell, NY.

The areas of the town and village where the hydrant surveys were conducted were split up among the students. Using existing maps, they located hydrants that remained in their original locations. They also went to places where water line work was done to make note of changes of hydrant locations.

"We started with data on previously-known hydrant locations and went from there," Munkwitz said. Hydrants located in village neighborhoods and populated areas of the town were easiest to locate. It took more effort to find hydrants in more rural areas. "The students went to known locations and recorded whether (the hydrant) still existed."

Students found and mapped the locations of more than 160 fire hydrants; Hosford estimates about two thirds of those hydrants were either new or in different locations from when the 2014 survey was done.

Drew Smith (left), a junior at Alfred University, and Rebecca Amdur-Kass catalog a fire hydrant during a survey of hydrants in the town and village of Alfred. Students in the Fieldcraft-Outdoor Proficiency class conducted the survey during in October and November.

Smit explained that once the data was collected, students placed it in a master Excel sheet. "Having the data in one document made it easier to analyze," she said.

Amdur-Kass said students worked to standardize the data. For example, street and road names weren't always consistent. For example, "street" was spelled out in some cases and abbreviated in others.

"We achieved a standard data set and were able to create (consistent) title IDs for all the" hydrant locations, she explained. The data, she said, was used to create geospatial mapping of the village town of Alfred, which included survey routes from the students' work and hydrant locations.

Amdur-Kass said prior to beginning the actual physical survey, students first learned how to use Avenza mapping software-which is used to capture geospatial data-and Google Earth. The survey work took about a week to complete, after which students began analyzing data and inputting it into Excel spreadsheets and creating images of maps to show the hydrants' locations.

Within the next month, the data should all be uploaded into the A.E. Crandall fire department's "I am Responding" platform. Allegany County provided the Alfred fire department a subscription to I am Responding, an app used by firefighters and other emergency service personnel that includes mapping of emergency service areas, as well as locations of hydrants. Hosford said he will also provide the data to the Alfred Station Volunteer Fire Department and the village of Alfred.

Printed updated maps will be kept in the A.E. Crandall's two pumpers and a ladder truck. The map in the app provides responders with the quickest route to an emergency. Firefighters being more aware of the precise location of hydrants could allow them to extinguish a fire more quickly.

"Time is of the essence with fires. They double in size with every minute" Hosford said. "The faster we can put water on the fire, the better."

In addition to learning about the process of mapping and the tools available to conduct a survey like this, students talked about the gratification that comes from serving the campus and local communities.

"I feel it's really special. It's really cool to see something we worked on benefiting the community," Smit commented said.

"Knowing the data is going to be used to help people makes it more fun," added Amdur-Kass.

"This is special," said Schena. "We're in a small town. It's nice to be able to help out."

"If anything, this makes me want to help more," Imburgia said.