Fire Service Struggles To Get Through

9 March 2010, 11:45 | Updated: 9 March 2010, 11:53

The fire service in Huntingdonshire say they're struggling to get to emergencies because they can't get past cars parked outside their station.

In recent months, crews at Huntingdon Fire Station have experienced problems accessing St Luke’s Close and Avenue Road in Huntingdon and are concerned that cars parked inconsiderately could block a fire engine from getting to an emergency.

Eddie Theaker, Watch Manager at Huntingdon Fire Station said: "Yesterday we had real problems accessing both St Luke’s Road and Avenue Road, as cars were parked on both sides of the road – leaving only a narrow space for a fire engine to squeeze through. Our firefighters stopped to place notices on these vehicles to alert the owners to this problem.

“Luckily we were not attending a 999 call, but if this had been the case, the parking issues would have considerably increased the time it took to get to an incident.

"We are asking motorists to be considerate when parking their vehicles by taking a quick look around once they are stationary to make sure that they would not be blocking a fire engine or any other emergency vehicle from getting past.

“Remember - the average fire appliance is 2.6m (9ft) wide and 8m (26ft) long, and one day we could be trying to get to your house.”