High Pressure Fire Service test at the south end of Union Square looking east from Broadway near 14th Street, facing statue of George Washington on horseback. A high pressure hydrant is on the right next to an "old" No. 1 hydrant. The HPFS, as it came to be known, was designed and built between 1904 and 1908 after a devastating fire in Coney Island in 1903, followed by the fire that destroyed the Baltimore business district in 1904. The NYC HPFS protected high-value business and manufacturing districts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, plus the Coney Island resort district. July 12, 1908.