Burnham-On-Sea fire station has this week urged residents to park responsibly and ensure their vehicles are not preventing access to emergency services after concerns were raised about cars parked in a Highbridge street over the weekend.
Burnham-On-Sea Fire Station received this photo of Alstone Road from a concerned resident on Sunday evening (October 13th) showing cars parked so closely that a fire engine would be unable to get past.
Burnham Fire Station Officer Ian Hazelton told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “We urge local people to park considerately to allow access for emergency service vehicles.”
“Parking like this can seriously delay or even prevent us getting to incidents in time to make a difference in saving a life or lives or preventing a small fire escalating into a large fire. You never know when you may need us.”
In a statement about the growing problem across Somerset, a spokesperson for the fire service added: “We have noticed that an increasing number of homeowners want to park their vehicles directly outside their properties without considering that access may be required for fire appliances in an emergency.”
“Some of the streets are narrow even without parked cars. Obviously, the size of our vehicle being what it is, we need slightly more room to manoeuvre than a car.”
“It is an ongoing problem which occurs all over the service area and there have been occasions when bad parking has delayed fire engines from reaching serious incidents.”
“Every second counts when the emergency services are responding to an incident. When people are parking outside their home we would ask them to consider whether a fire engine or ambulance would be able to get their house in an emergency.”
