JOHNSTON, Iowa -- You clear the snow from your driveway, you clear the snow from your sidewalk ... but there's one thing you may be forgetting to clear.

Metro fire departments are asking you to take a minute to clear the snow from around the fire hydrants on your block. The hydrants are placed close to roads so they are easy for fire trucks to reach. That also makes them susceptible to being buried by snow plows.

You aren't legally responsible to dig out a fire hydrant in front of your house. However if its not clear and a fire breaks out then fire fighters will have to spend their time digging instead of extinguishing flames.

Tristan Johnson with the Johnston Fire Department says if you haven't unburied your fire hydrant yet then now is the time to act. "The more the weather gets cold, we have melting and refreezing, the harder it is to dig out," Johnson says, "The snow kind of gets compacted. The higher the pile gets the heavier it is for us to shovel out."

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