I live in Europe. All the fire hydrants I know have their outlets on the sides so they cannot be blocked by parked cars. They also are further away from the side of the curb. I am not aware that it is forbidden to park next to them.
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I remember this movie now.I remembered liking it as a kid, but I haven’t seen it in decades
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Insurance companies generally don’t cover anything they don’t have to. There probably is a clause or a precedent covering exactly this scenario and why they don’t need to pay.
General pro-tip: the insurance company is not your friend.
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My kind of cops!
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I never noticed this. Wow. It really makes you wonder why people in America did not just turn the hydrant, or design a hydrant that simply can’t be blocked from the road by a vehicle.
I guess this is a case of one of those we designed the fire hydrant in 1900, and we are never going to change it for any reason kind of deals.
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If a delay in accessing the hydrant caused a death, could these fuckwits be charged with manslaughter?
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remember the saying… break the glass in (this) case of fire
but what will the bikers think now!
Some buildings in US metropolitan areas have hydrants on the side of the building, leaving the entire sidewalk free and making it even easier to hook into the hydrant. That being said i believe all hydrants require a fire lane by city code regardless of the ease of access to it, parking in it is still a dick move and i have zero sympathy for jackasses doing so.
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I haven’t seen that one, thanks for the tip. It looks like a riff on “The Out of Towners”, an absolutely hysterical Jack Lemmon movie.
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This is not a good or logical reason to not park in front of a hydrant. Don’t park there because you aren’t a dick, because you could slow down fire fighters, or because you could get a ticket or a tow. But “my car might get mildly damaged in the extremely unlikely event that the hydrant is needed” is not really a risk worth worrying about.
Also, if someone is going to push my parked car out of the way vs. break the windows. The windows probably cost about the same to replace as the bumper, but if the bulldozer maneuver causes any body damage it will be way worse.
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But that’s the thing, firefighters carry actual axes. Believe me, it is expedient for them to smash a couple car windows with an axe.
Also, perfectly safe for them, too, due to their gear. Dad was a volunteer firefighter, albeit, I don’t think he ever faced this situation. I know how heavy and protective that gear is. I watched firefighters battling a blaze in the middle of the night in a building across the alley from my then apartment. They break windows and chop holes in walls and ceilings. So, yep, they have great axe skills. Even if they are not breaking windows, the glass may explode due to the fire. Their gear withstands the heat of the fire and sharp debris, from glass to nails. They aren’t risking their safety by breaking car windows with an axe.
The damage to the car is more than just broken glass. My friend’s stepfather once said he had witnessed just this thing. The hose through the back seat still squashes the car and I think there is still water damage if for no other reason than they do unhook the hose and take it with them when the fire is out and any water still in the hose goes into the car. I suspect it isn’t just a few drops. Plus in the right (wrong) neighborhood, your car is now easy to strip. And the police will come ticket the car because the FD called them. Maybe there will be a trip to the impound lot.
You can park where ever you want but you have to know he consequences.
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Thise FD connections are often to hook a pumper truck to the existing sprinklers, to supplement the water in that system, which is otherwise unpressurized afaik.
It’s water in, not water out.
IANAF
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Fortunately for the owner of the car. The firefighters were not super ticked off. They could have backed the threaded connection off a few threads or more leaving a spectacular water spray to fill the car if they had been in a really nasty mood to teach the owner a very costly lesson about parking.
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That depends. Here in Germany, many fire hydrants are actually in holes below street level and covered with an elliptical metal lid – the fire trucks carry gear that is functionally equivalent to the above-ground part of a US-style fire hydrant and can be screwed into the hydrant fairly quickly; as an erstwhile volunteer firefighter I have ample personal experience doing that sort of thing.
It is very much forbidden to park on top of such a fire hydrant and the fire brigade will push your car out of the way with little ceremony and less attention to its staying undamaged if they need access to the hydrant and there is no other convenient hydrant nearby.
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