The law is pretty clear when it comes to parking your car in front of a water hydrant. Put simply; you can’t. Blocking a water hydrant is strictly prohibited by the law for obvious reasons.
In the case of a fire, firemen rely on street hydrants to provide a large amount of the water needed to put that fire out. Also, firemen need to be able to keep the hose straight so that they don’t risk any damage to the hose that could impair the operation and thus put human lives at risk.
But caught in the turmoil of everyday life, many drivers tend to forget about this simple rule. Whether it’s simply a result of drivers not paying much attention to their surroundings when parking their car, or because they assume the likelihood of a fire breaking is close to zero, many drivers break this rule and park their car in front of a fire hydrant.
It’s what one driver in Merced, California, did in the summer of 2013, and the reason why pictures of his or her car are all over the Internet nowadays. You see, the driver had blocked a hydrant and left his or her car sitting in front of a business.
Unfortunately, a fire started nearby and firemen was asked to intervene as soon as possible. You probably guessed what happened next. When they wanted to reach the fire hydrant, the firemen noticed the car was blocking their access.
But believe it or not, there’s actually a well-known procedure firemen use in these types of situations. All I’m going to say is this: it involves smashing the car’s windows.
