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While today’s incident turned out to be a false alarm, firefighters had ‘great difficulty’ getting their fire appliance down a narrow street.

After 25 years in the service it is a familiar situation for watch manager, Simon Lovelock.

Simon said: ‘There have been many occasions where we have been unable to get to an emergency incident because of how people have parked. When people park on the corner of roads it makes it very difficult to get fire appliances round.’

Southsea firefighters have released a photograph showing the tight squeeze they had getting their fire appliance past a van parked on a residential Portsmouth street.
Picture from @Southsea24, the fire station Twitter feed, used with permission — Southsea firefighters have released a photograph showing the tight squeeze they had getting their fire appliance past a van parked on a residential Portsmouth street. Picture from @Southsea24, the fire station Twitter feed, used with permission

The photograph of the incident, which was posted on Twitter, was part of a concerted campaign to improve public awareness about how people park and the impact it can have on access for emergency services.

Simon added: ‘People need to think about how they park. It is important to ensure wheels are straight and wing mirrors are pushed in. We often have a problem when two vans are parked directly opposite each other.’

Tight squeeze leads to warning from Southsea firefighter about how people park their vehicles

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