A driver in New York city learned the hard way what most of us were taught before we learned to drive:
Don’t park in front of a fire hydrant.
The FDNY Response Videos website recently posted a clip which showed firefighters at the scene of a colossal conflagration frustrated by the presence of a gray Honda sedan, which was blocking access to the fire hydrant. With no other options left to them, the firefighters broke the car’s windows in order to gain access to the fire hydrant with their hose.
The fire in question was a four-alarm blaze that broke out on June 20 at 3045 3rd Avenue in the Bronx. The inferno consumed a fabric store, a furniture store, a Dunkin’ Donuts location, a Chinese restaurant, and a 99 cent store.
A search of public records show that this isn’t the first time this driver has parked in front of a fire plug. In fact, it reveals that he has pretty shabby parking ethics in general.
The gray Honda’s owner has racked up over $9250 in unpaid parking fines since 2023. This two year record of scofflaw parking includes 33 violations for blocking access to a fire hydrant.
The blaze which cost the Honda owner his windows is shown on video to be belching a thick plume of smoke as the fire trucks converge upon the scene. As the firefighters approached the fire, they started deploying and climbing ladders to gain access to the roof of the building, while other smaller crews started hooking hoses up to the nearby fire hydrants.
As the flames began to spread, the firefighters cast about for hydrant hook-ups located further and further from the site of the fire. One firefighter can be seen taking hold of a large metal implement and smashing the passenger window of the Honda before moving on to the driver’s side. Firefighters then threaded the hose through the windows to hook up to the hydrant so they could fight the fire.
