The next time you need to park your car in a hurry, know better than to park it in front of a fire hydrant!
One California fire department were left despairing after street-side parking regulations were flouted by an impatient car owner. Spoiler alert: the fire department got their own back in the most dramatic fashion.
Ever wonder what happens when a car is parked in front of a fire hydrant and a fire breaks out? Is a closer parking spot worth the broken windows and the citation and towing fees to @AnaheimPD? @City_of_Anaheim residents please do not park in fire lanes pic.twitter.com/Q96E4gfTOR
— Anaheim Fire & Rescue (@AnaheimFire) February 26, 2019
Anaheim Fire & Rescue shared a series of photos of a slightly unorthodox public emergency in the early morning of Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. The photos served both as a record of their sterling efforts to keep the community safe and as a warning to careless car owners everywhere. It doesn’t take a genius to decipher that parking in front of a fire hydrant makes the hydrant inaccessible, but try telling that to the owner of the silver sedan that got in the way of Anaheim’s first responders!
“Ever wonder what happens when a car is parked in front of a fire hydrant and a fire breaks out?” the fire department posted on their Twitter account. Accompanying the post were photos showing four angles of the silver car in question, with its windows smashed to smithereens.
“Is a closer parking spot worth the broken windows and the citation and towing fees to @AnaheimPD?” the post continued, wryly. The smashed windows were not an act of vengeance, however—the fire department are consummate professionals! Rather, it was a means to an end as firefighters fed a hose directly through the driver and passenger’s front windows to reach the blaze.
“There is a reason the curbs are RED, people,” the fire department signed off. Somehow, we think the owner of the sedan has well and truly learned their lesson.
Many Twitter users supported the action by the firefighters, while others showed sympathy to the driver.
One Twitter user wrote: “AnaheimFire, What would be the chances of doing a training video and show what happens when the hose is placed across the top of a car. I can’t believe how many people don’t understand why this was necessary.”
“You parked in the wrong spot that’s what you get! Everybody who has a driver’s license should know that you do not park in a red zone ever for any amount of time or this is what happens,” another user commented.
It’s not the first time that an inconsiderate driver has held up the sterling work of the fire department. According to CBS News, on April 9, 2014, a driver parked a brand-new BMW in front of a fire hydrant in East Boston. And in an outlandish display of bad luck, a fire broke out on the street. The fire department, with their priorities firmly focused on the fire and not the sanctity of the brand-new BMW, proceeded to smash the windows to feed the fire hose through the car’s interior.
We posted this incident to illustrate and educate, not to humiliate anyone. In answer as to why break the windows instead of going under, over, or around the car… it doesn’t work. The hose needs a straight line out of the hydrant. We do not damage property unless it is needed
— Anaheim Fire & Rescue (@AnaheimFire) February 27, 2019
“I wanted to cry for him,” said Rafael Henriquez, not the car’s owner but a deeply sympathetic friend. He added: “Of course, he brought that on himself.”
NJ.com similarly reported that an Acura owner parked in front of a fire hydrant on June 13, 2018, in Hamilton, New Jersey. A fire alarm sounded at 1 a.m. and firefighters didn’t hesitate to smash the improperly parked vehicle’s windows to reach the hydrant. To add insult to injury for the Acura owner, it was only a minor blaze.
“This is what happens when you park in front of a hydrant,” the Hamilton Township Professional Firefighters posted, desperate to deter hasty drivers from parking in the wrong place.
California state law has been on the case for years: the law dictates that it is illegal to park within 15 feet of either a fire hydrant or a fire station driveway.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
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