It is hard to believe it, but it is true. Whenever Fire Department officials assist an emergency, they find various setbacks that hinder their work and take away valuable time.
Obstruction to the access to hydrants, vehicles parking in corners or in double row in a dead end street, are just some of the situations that concern officials.
According to Héctor Chávez, general director of the Fire Department, after fighting for a hydrants law in Costa Rica because there was a great shortage, there is a new problem.
As he explained, traffic congestion has forced people to park in front of hydrants:
They do this, even though the traffic law prohibits parking in front of a fire hydrant; people disrespect the law and they are not fined. We know that traffic police have a lot of work, and that’s why we thank the municipal police authorizing its officials to help us, but we also want to appeal to people’s conscience: parking in front of a fire hydrant that we can use make our work very difficult,
declared Chávez.
However, these are not the only problems. According to the hierarch, people often park in both sides of narrow streets. In addition, it is very common to see people that park on corners, even though it is prohibited by law. He also indicated that people leave trash bags in front of the fire hydrant, Christmas trees or they simply damage them.
As consequence, their job lasts longer since firefighters have to look for other hydrants and that can make the difference between a fire beginning to one that involves several houses.