Peterborough: Inconsiderate Parking

29 August 2012, 06:04 | Updated: 29 August 2012, 06:10

Firefighters in Peterborough couldn't get close to a reported house fire recently, because of inconsiderately parked cars.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service has released CCTV images (pictured) of how the badly parked vehicles hindered their response to a call on Gladstone Street.

The images were captured by CCTV cameras fitted to the back and sides of a fire engine, as the crew from Dogsthorpe attended a fire on Friday 17 August.

Firefighters were forced to reach the incident on foot, while another fire slowly guided the fire engine through the narrow gap between cars parked on either side of the road.

Callum Faint, Station Commander for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "Due to some extremely poor parking on this street our fire engines were delayed and unable to get within 100 metres of the house.

Fortunately this turned out to be a false alarm but if it had been a real incident the outcome could have been much worse.

We appreciate that this is a very busy street but people must leave enough room for a fire engine to pass when they park.

A fire engine is 2.6 metres (9 feet) wide and 8 metres (26 feet) long.

We would ask drivers to think about this whenever they park and remember that next time we could be trying to get to your house."