Fire hydrant 'crackdown'?

I have a fire hydrant right next to my house, actually within my patio tiling. Yesterday I a PWA guy came and marked the post,

let couple of cubic meters of water out - and at the end took with him the red T connector where the fire hose should be connected. Went to look next to my neigbor house, and noticed the whole post was gone, only a hole in the ground!

Any idea what is behind the crackdown of these? I understand the testing and marking, but to take away an existing post in a location where no other post conveniently accessible??

Maybe they accidentally ordered large qty of new hoses with connector that is not compatible with the coarse thread of the red T connectors?