There is a seven-alarm fire in East Boston right now. It started as a car fire and quickly spread to three neighboring buildings. Being that a nine-alarm Back Bay fire recently claimed the lives of two firefighters, Fire Lieutenant Edward Walsh, 43, and Firefighter Michael Kennedy, 33, any report of a city fire is being dramatically reported by local news crews. 

Reading it on my tweeter feed I noticed a local newscaster from WBZ CBS tweeting the above pictures. First, it reminded of a similar picture that is older than the internet (right). Secondly, I asked myself out loud ‘why is it always an BMW?’

I text messaged my firefighter friend the above picture and asked if there is any way of routing the hose under or around the car. His answer was an expected and an obvious one, no.

“You can’t really bend a charged 4-inch feed line. Straight and a slight bend is about as good as you can do. And they will never park in front of a hydrant again”

“Water is everything at a fire and you need it ASAP.”

“Looks like they may have swung the cars end out too?”

So please, don’t park next to fire hydrants, not even for a minute.