NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Hundreds of Nashville fire hydrants may not have the water flow needed to put out a fire. While the Nashville fire department said it can handle the problem, one local fire victim said he has his doubts.

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"Me and my wife have a difficult time talking about it," said Allen Barry.

Barry lost everything when his Wilson County home burned, including his faith in the fire hydrant on his corner.

"Prior to my experience," Barry said, "I would think that a fire hydrant would put out a fire. But that's not the way it goes."

When Barry's house caught on fire, firefighters struggled to get the water they needed from the hydrant.

National and international fire protection agencies said hydrants need a minimum of 1,000 gallons per minute to adequately fight a fire. Barry's hydrant was below that, at 700.

"The water not being there, that was a frustration, because you wanted it to be there," he said.

Barry said he worries about other people who live near the 586 low-flow hydrants the Channel 4 I-Team found in Davidson County.

"I would hope they would live close to a fire station, because that's where the fire protection is going to come from, not from hydrants," Barry said.

Experts on fire protection said low-flow hydrants hamper firefighters' abilities.

"If they don't have adequate water," said fire protection expert Ken Dungan, "it greatly limits the number of hose streams they can put on a fire."

These low-flow hydrants are marked with black caps in Davidson County and are no secret to firefighters. The city just passed an ordinance requiring most new homes that have a low-flow hydrant outside to also have sprinklers installed inside.

"I would say existing homes, they've been making it fine for many years," said Nashville Fire Department deputy chief William Curran.

The fire department said it can handle the low flow problem. They say if they run into a low-flow hydrant, they'll just go to the next closest hydrant for extra water.

"We have contingency plans for any scenario you could come up with," said Curran.

But some streets with large houses, like Hardingwoods Place in west Nashville, have one low-flow hydrant, then another, then another, all in a row.

Nashville's fire department also said three engines arrive on every fire call, carrying 1,000 gallons each. If they need to, they could call one of four super tankers in the county that each carry 2,000 gallons.

But how effective is it - to keep bringing in one truck after another to a house fire - just to keep adequate water flowing?

"It's very inefficient," Dungan said of bringing truck after truck to a house fire, "and it doesn't take very long to use up the capacity of a 1,000 gallon tank … You'll probably lose the house involved."

Sonia Harvat of the Metro Water Department said some hydrants having great flow while others don't is due, in part, to the county's aging water system.

Hydrants are hooked up to the city's water system, which is on a grid. In many cases, the pipes are outdated. Older neighborhoods, like parts of Belle Meade, had pipes and hydrants put in when homes weren't as large as they are now.

Rural areas of the county can have black caps because there simply aren't as many people requiring larger water mains that fuel higher-flow hydrants.

Nashville's fire department also said it's impossible to know if homes have burned in Nashville due to low-flow hydrants because there are so many other variables involved, including how soon the department received the call and out of what the house was made.

The fire department said nowhere on house fire reports is there a place to mark an issue with water flow in a hydrant.

Barry said in the case of his fire, the low-flow hydrant is to blame. He said firefighters did the best they could, even bringing in an extra tanker for more water.

But by the time enough water got on the flames, little of his home was left.

"If they view the hydrant as a safety blanket, they're wrong," he said.

Firefighters said get out of your house and call 911 immediately if your home is on fire, despite having a high- or low-flow hydrant.