Parking by a fire hydrant is stupid. You should never do it, because firefighters need access to water. If you do, they will happily smash through your car to hook up their hoses, and they won’t be sorry. That much is fair. But what happens if you park kinda sorta near a hydrant?
That case recently came to pass in New York earlier this month. As posted to Twitter by FearedBuck, we see a vehicle parked close to a hydrant as a fire crew rolls in. One of the firefighters busies himself with hooking the truck up to the hydrant, and the Honda in the way gets the business. The windows are smashed, the hose is fed through the cabin, and the truck is duly hooked up to the water supply.
The video has spawned a flurry of commentary, with posters taking two sides. Some claim the firefighters were out of pocket, alleging there was no need to smash the vehicle at all. Others stated that fire crews don’t have time to muck about with cars in their way, and that the action was utterly justified. Let’s take a look at the footage—and at the history of this driver—and see what’s what. Stick around for the twist.
someone parked right beside a fire hydrant & got their car window smashed ????????pic.twitter.com/FW2N6bTbdH
— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) July 11, 2024
Fair, or Unfair?
From the drop, let’s get this straight. This Honda is undeniably parked illegally. New York regulations state that vehicles must be more parked more than 15 feet away from a hydrant. It appears the owner may have assumed the bollards by the hydrant marked out the forbidden area, but that’s not the case. You may not park in a 15-foot zone on either side of the hydrant.
However, since the vehicle wasn’t parked right next to the hydrant, that pushed many to question the actions of the crew in the video. Suggestions were that the fire truck could have moved forwards or backwards, and the hose could have been laid in front of or behind the car. Without a full view of the area, though, it’s hard to support this assumption. We don’t know the traffic or road conditions at the time, or what other fire appliances were in the area. But taking a look at the area, it’s tight.
Others suggested the hose could have been passed over the vehicle. To an extent, this may be true. However, it’s probably actually a worse idea for several reasons, if it would be allowed at all. For one, the fire hose is safest sitting on the ground.
Having the hose lofted over a vehicle would present a much higher risk to crews in the area. You can’t have a high-pressure hose just flopping around all over the place, and there’s a chance the crew would get hung up on the hose or even trip over it.
Car's windows getting smashed for parking near water hydrant pic.twitter.com/XaiwR1c5VH
— Visual feast (@visualfeastwang) July 10, 2024
Plus, hanging the hose over the car would maybe cause more damage? Getting a couple of windows replaced isn’t that hard. In contrast, a heavy-duty firehose would likely scuff up or damage a lot of paintwork which would possibly require expensive bodywork to rectify.
The fact is that a fire hose is not like a garden hose you might have at home. It’s a heavy piece of equipment, with a 5-inch hose capable of flowing 2000 gallons of water a minute. These hoses are not excessively long, and you can’t just lay them willy-nilly. A fire truck needs a clear run to the hydrant.
Wait. Say That Again?
It’s easy to be sympathetic to the driver. They’d have returned to their car only to find their windows smashed and the interior full of glass. But hold that thought.
Run the driver’s license plate through a parking violation query with the city of New York. You’ll find something interesting. They’ve racked up a total of $12,078 in parking fines and camera violations in the last three years.
You can see 17 of the fines here, but there are 94 fines in total, with the most recent issued on the 1st of July, 2024. The ticket asserts the vehicle was parked within 1 foot of the hydrant seen in this video. For their trouble, the driver was fined $115.
Incidentally, it’s apparently the 34th time they’ve been ticketed for parking in front of a hydrant. Getting your car smashed once in 34 illegal parks… those aren’t great odds.
One suspects the owner doesn’t plan to pay this one. Just as they’ve ignored paying so many tickets before. Oh, and they’re also apparently partial to speeding in school zones.
It’s easy to say that the firefighter in the video saw a car parked illegally, and saw an opportunity for some cathartic destruction. I wouldn’t call that fair. The city requires people to park away from hydrants for good reason. Emergency crews don’t have time to try and work around illegally parked cars. The Honda should never have been there in the first place. The fact this is apparently a regular pattern of behavior for this driver just seals the deal.
[Ed note: David and I are sitting here and don’t necessarily agree. David thinks it was a touch too far as it didn’t seem like the car was blocking the hydrant. But this is my town. You get 34 fire hydrant tickets you have severely fucked around and you have now found out. – MH]
Image credits: Visual feast and FearBuck via Twitter video screenshot, Google Maps via screenshot, City of New York via screenshot
Finally, something I’m almost qualified to answer.
1st- been on FDNY for 25 years
2nd -Engine Chauffeur (FDNY term for guy who drives the rig)for 10 years
3rd- I was at this job.
So, we have two things going on here
1st and foremost is hooking up to a hydrant. Usually if your first due, it needs to be as fast and efficient as possible, if I was the boss and I came out of a building and saw this, I would lose my mind. As far as operationally, this was a shit show. You could’ve hooked up faster by laying the hose right over the hood and you would’ve been fine, it also would’ve taken half the time. Chauffeur and crew went far out of their way to break the windows. Lets not even talk about a disgruntled owner coming in and fucking with your supply line because you destroyed his car.
2nd is that New York City is full of these assholes who park right on the hydrant. Its an issue and we dont seem to have enough resources to tow cars that deserve this. (Hell, it took two hours to get cars towed that were right in front of the fire building) So do I agree with this owners car getting busted up….no. Am I upset that some firemen got to live out some masturbatory Backdraft fantasy….Once again no.
I work with a former firefighter and he said that getting to smash the windows out of a car was like, THE universal desire of everyone he worked with. Himself included.
Alas, he never got the chance during his tenure.
Seemed like breaking that window took forever and one of those tiny hammers people keep in their cars to smash the window and swim out would have been WAY more efficient. Guessing firefighters don’t keep tiny hammers on their rig.
Couple of reasons it took so long. The first is that the tool he is using is a custodian wrench, which is a specialized tool for opening multiple types of hydrants. Not customarily used for venting car windows. The second is that some passenger cars no longer have normal side windows, they are laminated, just like the front windshield. This makes them a pain in the ass to break open. It doesn’t shatter like they used to, you almost have to either peel them back or punch through.
Indeed this is laminated glass – I was impressed that a Honda would have this. Makes it much easier when the vandals break into your car (that was parked in front of the police station) to steal your sunglasses and ice cream money. The tempered glass breaks into thousands of small pieces that you can never fully get rid of. I guess tempered glass is usually more expensive than laminated glass, so maybe this is a feature for lower priced cars – can you use untempered door glass if you laminate it??
I believe laminated glass is being used on newer cars for NVH reasons.
Thanks for replying 🙂
I feel like an important lesson was learned that day by the car owner, and they serve as a warning for the next asshole who decides their convenience is more important than FDNY putting out a fire. Thanks for everything you do for all of us in NYC.
I’m glad my first thought seems to be the correct one – this took longer to do for no good reason. Hooking the hose up fast should have been the priority.
Once the fire is out, sure. Drag the metal end of the hose across the hood. Maybe there’s an oopsie and it hits the windshield.
There’s no need to be careful of property that shouldn’t be there, but don’t go out of your way and slow down the process to cause damage.
Watching the video it didn’t seem to slow them down at all. As window smasher was hooking up to the hydrant the other fire fighter was still unrolling the rest of the feeder line.
I’m just gonna go ahead and stop thinking about what I think and just agree with the one guy in the room whose credentials and authority on the matter seem unimpeachable. Thanks for your thoughts and for your service. Be safe out there.
I love how the city with it’s own income tax, in a state with income tax, on top of what they receive from Federal Taxes, can’t afford to paint a curb red to mark the no park zone…
Could be NIMBYs.
I’m not a fire fighter, but I use these hoses for testing purposes and that car being there really screws up the routing. Even going through the car, the kinks in the photo are probably cutting the flow rate in half (they may have straightened it some after the photo?). It almost seems like going over the top would have been better for everybody, but it’s hard to say.
If I was the city, I would just tow the damn car at the end and made them pay all the fines on the spot if they want to recover their vehicle.
This!
Why not both? Although the car probably isn’t worth 12K after this.
Based on their ticket history, well deserved.
Also as someone who’s had a house fire, they’re not concerned with anything other than getting the fire out. I had to replace a beam in my roof that they cut through to vent the smoke. Is what it is. Don’t make their job harder by parking in the way.
I 100% side with the firefighters here. Perhaps they could have adjusted a few things here or there to not “have” to bust the windows, but that’s not their job. Plus, that driver/car owner fully deserved what they got based on their history. FAFO!
How many fines do you need to get to finally figure out you don’t need a car in NYC?
Look, these guys were clearly pumped, and now the accord owner is hosed. It wasn’t the ideal trail to blaze, but water you gonna do?
Someone is either getting fired or promoted for this one. Probably the ladder. I don’t blame them for decisions made in the heat of the moment.
These are scorching hot takes, everyone. For safety’s sake, you are advised to clear the area of your own [a]ccord.
Know what’ll cool those takes off? A refreshing 2000GPM sip from the industrial garden hose!
This fiery issue is rekindling burning questions about heated debates left smoldering by years of ashking the hot questions and has ignited a spark of curiosity which should either go up in smoke or not hold water. Perhaps the ladder?
Have you ever been washing your car and you need to move the hose to the other side and it gets wedged under the tire? The fire hose is quite a bit larger, but I bet the principle is still the same.
Pluse $12k in unpaid fines including multiple previous violations for the same thing? F ’em.
Ok. Here’s the thing. A firetruck must stop at the optimal location for them to fight the fire. It is not a negotiation at to where the truck decides to stop if someone stupidly parks in front of a fire hydrant. It also it not a negotiation where the hose gets run, the firemen decide what is fastest for hooking up to the truck. They are not going to move the truck forward or back after stopping and waste time. Not a single fireman would waste time asking the pumper driver to move after stopping. (Unless there is absolutely no way to get a hookup.) Finally a driver will stop in a space that allows for other trucks to be able to come in an assist in case the fire escalates to requiring more trucks. So I’ll repeat again. There is no negotiating where they stop and park.
The firemen must quickly hookup and they don’t waste time thinking, gee, maybe we should run the hose in a different way than we are TRAINED to always do it. I can pretty well guarantee they are trained to NOT drape a hose over a vehicle and rather smash out windows to make a path to the pumper. They won’t waste time trying to figure out the optimal route for the hose – they hook it up QUICKLY.
Firefighting it about responding quickly to the fire. They are not wasting a second worrying about a car in the way – they just smash the windows and go. Their job is to save lives from fires.
The guys running the hose to the pumper have one job. Hook up as quickly as possible so when their buddies already suited up have water when they enter the fire zone. The ones going into the fire want to save the occupants (#1 goal) and then prevent the fire from spreading (#2 goal) and then try and minimize damage to the building on fire (#3 goal). Waiting for water to be available in not an option. They go in knowing water will be available when they go.
I see absolutely no issue with what was done. They did their job. They hooked up the water quickly. End of story.
I’m not sure how you can pretty much guarantee that we dont drape hoses over the hood. Because that’s exactly what they should have done. That’s exactly what I have done in the same situation, that’s exactly what I teach them to do.
What they did here took more time, more effort and basically was not necessary.
The one thing your right about, they need to hook up quickly, most chauffeurs would not have done this and they would have been faster and more efficient in not doing so.
Pretty much exactly what I was going to post. Father is a retired fire chief, and talked about this a lot. When there’s a fire, if they can, save the occupants, save the building, not save the car that parked in front of a hydrant. Seconds are huge.
Yeah, I don’t think for a second they would have taken the time to smash those windows just out of spite. It seems like this was either the best option or what they believed to be the best option. Either way, they did what they had to do and I hope they got the fire dealt with quickly and properly.
Agreed. No one is looking up plate histories while a fire is waiting to be dealt with. After the fact it is fun to look and see the car owner “deserved it” or whatever but no way did it happen ahead of time!
They should just put cow catchers or dozer blades on the front of the fire engines and bull rush cars out of the way. Lots more fun.
They did this for the fun of it and to make a point. I don’t blame them, car owner was pushing their luck.
I agree, it had to take them longer to break the windows and run the hose through the car than it would have to run it in front of or over the car. In the one picture it shows the hose kinked, reducing its flow potential to able to make it through the car. So yeah they did it because they could, to teach the owner a lesson and make them have to deal with a wet seat full of glass.
Seems like a situation where everyone is acting like an asshole.
The car – no excuse really – rules is rules.
The city of New York – do they not paint the curb yellow in front of the fire hydrants? That’s how I know where not to park in Chicago.
The firefighter – I completely agree he needs to do whatever it takes to do his job… but given the additional time required to break out the windows and thread through the hose – it seems to me he went out of his way in the interest of (maybe) justified retribution, not in the interest of saving lives/property. Looks to me like it would have been faster and more effective to route the hose in front of the car. I also doubt whether the firefighter had previous knowledge of the parking ticket history of that particular car.
Yeah, if this had been someone without that history, I would have really felt like they got screwed. Most places I have been have had either yellow or red curb markings to designate where you can’t park.
Look at the tight fit and the other firefighters pulling equipment out of the truck. Running the hose in front of and beside the car or over the hood would have made things harder for them and for the people trying to lay out the hose. Could they have made it work? Maybe. But I can see why taking the time to break out the windows may have been the better move.
Correct. Which makes me think the firefighter didn’t do this as some sort of comeuppance. That just shows us how long the guy got away with it.
There is some amount of comeuppance here. Which I think is okay.
They kind of have to make sure that car doesn’t leave. If the guy parked there (and obviously has a history of it, probably like most hydrant parkers do), there’s no reason for them to think he won’t try to drive over the hose to leave if they lay it on the street near his car. I assume that could damage the hose and hinder firefighting efforts.
They wouldn’t do this.
Even if the hose could have been run in front of the car, he deserved it for parking illegally.. FAFO.
Aged out volunteer first responder here. You would think that people don’t need to be dicks. When you put on the turn out gear, you find that the fire is not your biggest problem…
Seems to me the right angle would be drivers front window and passenger rear window if they really wanted to run the hose the right way
Yeah, I agree. That would have been the most direct route. Probably just a bit harder to pass the hose through, though.
I mean if they REALLY needed more space, they could also have just used the Jaws of Life to make a 1-off Accord Cabriolet
Thoise fines still probably total way less than what a real parking space would cost.
When I lived in Chicago, where the cops a sneaky and the meter maids are ruthless terminators i used to just accept that 3 tickets a month was about what a parking space would cost me anyway.
Coulda been a nun, coulda been a felonious presidential candidate – the extra context of the driver’s history is irrelevant.
It doesn’t seem like the hose needed to go through the car. It looks like the firefighter saw the opportunity for some smashy smashy and they took it, whether it was necessary or not.
If you’ve ever had your window broken out before, you know how much it sucks to clean up all those glass shards. They get everywhere, including inside the doors. Add a dripping hose and you’ve got a recipe for a completely ruined interior. It just seems like a dick move on behalf of the FF because they could.
If the car was parked in front of the hydrant, go off king. Cut that shit in half if you need to. Push the car out of the way with your giant battering ram of a fire engine. All’s fair. But it wasn’t, and it would be cool if our public servants weren’t smash happy dickheads when they don’t need to be.
Ruined interior??
Someone smashed the driver’s window of my van to unlock it and steal my subwoofers. After it was towed to a Safelite, they vacuumed the seat and area as best as they could, and I mean, they correctly warned me “it’s like glitter, more will turn up here and there” but it was extremely infrequent and only a bit on the floor around it, not in the seat or anything.
As far as the window is concerned, it was one bad day for me and Safelite did a good job cleaning it up. And that’s a (Amazon dimension listing) 31″ x 31″ window.
Would you rather they have scratched up the paint on several panels and potentially destroy the windshield?
Yes. I would rather have several gallons of water outside my car than inside it.
You actually think that hose is going to leak water into the car?
I’m not a firefighter but I’ve rolled up plenty of garden hoses in my day. I’ve learned that they aren’t empty just because the water is off. Water will get in the interior once the hose is rolled up, and I would imagine that if they went out of their way to smash a window that didn’t need it, they aren’t going to be very concerned about whether the interior stays dry after they’re done pumping.
It will.
the hydrant does not have an evacuation capacity to clear the hose. Having rolled up thousands of feet of this kind of hose, all that latent water is still in the hose when the hydrant valve is turned off. So as the hose is pulled out of the car, it will POUR water into the interior. O well. Should’ve thought about that before parking within 15′ of a fire hydrant. Not sorry.
IIRC fire hoses are designed to be used inside burning structures so they weep to keep cool. If so it will dump quite a bit of water in the
car.
They’re not going to push the car with the fire truck. Those things run $800k – $1.2M, they’re not going to risk damage to the truck when routing a hose directly from hydrant to truck is easier. Just happens to have a car in the way.
Theres nothing wrong here.
I regret to inform everyone that I have fixed the “hoes” typo.
booooooooooo
Well there goes all my fun for the morning.
Why?
I’ll side with the firefighters. They know the best route for the hose and the angles it can and can’t take. It looks like there might have possibly been a ground path, but oh well. Add in all that owner’s parking tickets and any sympathy goes right out the window.
I’m gonna go with the firefighters here. The port on the hydrant is not perpendicular to the street, it is canted toward the errant Accord. This, combined with their own policies and regs for how to do this, leads me to believe they did the right thing.
Look, FDNY has been around for a very long time, they’ve been dealing with this issue forever. They’re trained to do whatever is necessary.
These were professionals at work, but that doesn’t make them isolated above and beyond criticism. An attitude that some are simply above criticism is the most dangerous idea in the last 250 years or so.
I agree, FDNY has been around for a long time, doing what’s necessary as fast as possible. It’s also true NYC officials have been assholes for almost as long as NYC has existed. “Whatever is necessary” is very flexible and frequently used to justify and enable officials to be assholes in the line of duty.
An early step to fascism is to allow officials to be assholes in the line of duty just because they’re officials. Everyone should be accountable for what they do, and no one is above the law. No one.
This conflict is what forms bureaucracies. This should be investigated to determine whether this was a justifiable and necessary course of action, or simply rouge retribution. I’m leaning toward 60% one, 40% the other, but I also know my opinion is less valuable than the most junior investigator of issues like this.
From the angle filmed, my first thought was that it would have been faster and more direct to run the hose under the front bumper, but as the video progressed I realized how much better the angles were through the car for the tight street. It was the right move. Was it absolutely necessary? Maybe not, but I also don’t think they would have wasted time smashing windows if other ways would have worked well. Was it the best way to keep the hose out of the way as firefighters accessed equipment? Yes.
Am I especially pleased that this was a repeat offender and not some poor sap who just didn’t understand that the bollards didn’t mark the parking restriction? Yes. Do I hope he has to pay for new windows out of pocket? Absolutely. Do I think he should have his registration revoked until he makes some effort to pay his fines and improve his behavior? Definitely.
Seriously! How the hell has the registration not already been cancelled or the car just seized outright when the fines literally amount to the value of the car?!
I’d heard people could rack up tickets with impunity, but I guess I never knew exactly how toothless they were. I always assumed they could at least withhold your registration, even if they couldn’t take your license for some reason.
Yeah I don’t think taking the license is the right call, but you definitely should not be able to register the car with outstanding tickets, and at some point the car should be towed and not released until all fines are paid.
I agree, though I also believe that revoking driving privileges (especially in cases of reckless driving, DUIs, etc.) should be a punishment that is on the table sooner and more often than it currently is. My aside about the license was more a recognition that it’s not really an option.
Didn’t expect I would find anyone here in favor of obstructing emergency vehicles and school zone speeding but go off David!
Ok hoes aside, I am definitely thinking they could have gone over the hood. Yes, it would potentially scratch the paint, but that’s not that big of a deal compared to this, and I don’t see how that’s any more of a tripping hazard or anything to the firefighters than this is. The hose would have been at a similar height. Screw the driver, I feel no sympathy for them, but I do think this was an example of I can so I will, not a matter of necessity.
I do feel like there is a more PC way of referring to the hoes though, that just seems derogatory.
I thought they just needed to move some gardening implements.
Ah. That explains everything, due to New Yorkers being unfamiliar with farming tools, they were forced to break windows rather than deal with these foreign instruments. This would not have been an issue in Nebraska.
It’s not the height, but the location. See where they’re grabbing equipment from the truck right beside the car and consider where the hose would end up if you ran it over the hood, especially since the slack would potentially lead to sliding down.
I can see that. Not 100% sure I buy it, but it’s plausible.
Lay the hose across the roof?
Smash windows and run the hose through?
Nah. Use the various power saws and jaws of life to cut a section out of the middle of the car so the hose can safely connect to the hydrant and lay on the ground as intended. Then charge the vehicle owner for the additional fire damage caused by the delay.
“hoes could have been laid in front of or behind the car” – only in New York I guess does the fire department need to move hoes around.
Dammit. Came here to post the same but you beat me to it.
If this guy isnt paying for any of his tickets, it’s not like the fire department is going to have the funds to pay any of them to move
Typo fixed, glad we got some enjoyment out of it first.