A Dash 8 flight crew suffered a hydraulic system failure after retracting the landing gear following takeoff. They continued their short flight to their scheduled destination where they landed; removed the passengers and were towed to the ramp.

Narrative

Tower assigned runway heading to 4;000. Upon the completion of gear retraction in the initial climb; we received a master caution HYDR 'look down' light. We identified a complete hydraulic fluid loss in addition to a main accumulator failure. We declared an emergency with Approach after running the applicable checklists. As pilot flying; I called for the hydraulic caution light illuminated QRC followed by the climb checklist; then the QRH as directed by the QRC. The QRH verified our situation and directed us to a second hydraulic procedure which directed us to pull the emergency landing gear handle; place the gear handle in the down position; check hydraulic pressure in the brake accumulators (inboard and outboard were at normal operation PSI) and finally on to the malfunction chart to calculate our speeds for a zero flap landing. After declaring the emergency with Approach; the First Officer informed Operations of the situation so they could contact Dispatch. I then handed off the controls to the First Officer and briefed the Flight Attendant and passengers. Approximately ten minutes from landing; the First Officer called in range with the nature of the situation and made it very clear a tug would be required to remove the aircraft from the runway. We completed descent; approach and before landing checklists and landed without event on the runway where we were met by emergency personnel. Passengers and the Flight Attendant were briefed again on the runway and passengers were deplaned onto a mobile lounge due to the excessive cabin temperature. A tug arrived shortly thereafter and we were tugged to the hangar.