Firefighters had to navigate cars that blocked hydrants in two fires in the Bronx and in Brooklyn. “Seconds count when we’re fighting fire,” said a Fire Department chief.
Firefighters had to navigate cars that blocked hydrants in two fires in the Bronx and in Brooklyn. “Seconds count when we’re fighting fire,” said a Fire Department chief.
Firefighters had to navigate cars that blocked hydrants in two fires in the Bronx and in Brooklyn. “Seconds count when we’re fighting fire,” said a Fire Department chief.
Two people died in a fire that engulfed a Buddhist temple in the Bronx early Wednesday morning, the second fatal blaze in a week where responding firefighters had to navigate illegally parked cars that blocked fire hydrants, officials said.
One person died at the scene of the fire, and the other was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, according to Mark Bonilla, the Fire Department’s chief of emergency medical services, who spoke at a news conference held on Wednesday at the scene, in the Tremont neighborhood of the Bronx.
Both people were on the second floor of a residential building next door to the temple when the fire broke out.
It is not clear if the illegally parked cars prevented firefighters from saving the victims. But vehicles parked in front of hydrants can often slow down firefighters’ access to water, John Esposito, the Fire Department’s chief of department, said at the news conference. New York City law prohibits parking within 15 feet of either side of a fire hydrant, and people can be fined $115 for doing so.
“Our firefighters are very well-trained. But certainly if those hydrants were not blocked, it’s a little bit of a smoother, quicker operation for us,” Chief Esposito said.