New York Post via Twitter
- A 2005 BMW 5-series parked in the way of firefighters at a hydrant got its windows smashed out so they could run their giant high-pressure hose right through the car.
- The owner told the New York Post he’s stressed, but, well, he did leave his car in front of a hydrant for four days.
- This is absolutely not the first time firefighters have performed this maneuver. It’s common enough that it was in the movie Backdraft, and you can find plenty of other examples online—but even so, there seems to be a bit of trend going on with BMW drivers parking in front of hydrants. Draw your own conclusions.
We all know the rules. You’re not supposed to park in front of a fire hydrant. It’s illegal and dangerous. But knowing the rules and following them don’t always go hand in hand. And it seems like BMW drivers have a penchant for not following the rules. Or maybe they just think BMW really does stand for “Break My Windows.”
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Whatever the reason, a 2005 5-series sedan was parked in front of a hydrant in the Bronx in New York City this week, apparently for at least four days, after the battery in the driver’s key fob died. Then, because of course it did, a fire broke out on the other side of the road and firefighters needed to get a hose from the hydrant to the blaze. The shortest distance? Through the BMW’s front windows.
Perhaps you’ve seen the scene in the movie Backdraft where this same thing happens. Firefighters can and will smash car windows to run the hose through, and it appears going through a car is notably better for water pressure than trying to go under, over, or around the vehicle. One person replying to the Post tweet said just that:
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So, in case you simply don’t care about paying the parking ticket for blocking a hydrant, now you know that it not only hurts a fire department’s ability to respond but it can result in a decent-size repair bill. At least the Bronx fire resulted in only minor injuries—plus the damage to the BMW, of course.
The BMW owner remained anonymous while talking to the New York Post. “They f**k up my car and it is going to cost me a bag of money,” he said. “I am stressed. They didn’t have to do that!” His ticket could be $ 180, the Post says, along with whatever it costs to fix the windows.
We won’t get into broad stereotypes about BMW drivers here, but we feel obliged to point out that this is not the first Bimmer to get its windows smashed in pretty much the exact same situation. It happened in 2014 in Boston when a man in his twenties parked in front of a hydrant overnight. Another BMW driver, also in Boston, parked illegally in front of a hydrant later that year, but the fire department did not break his windows when a three-alarm fire broke out nearby. That BMW driver later apologized and said he simply didn’t see the hydrant.
To be fair, drivers of all kinds of cars have done the stupid thing and parked in front of a hydrant exactly when firefighters needed to access it, as CNN reported in 2013, and you can find many more examples on YouTube. While we all know the rules, we suspect we’ll hear about another similar incident at some point in the future, BMW or otherwise.
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