Once upon a time, Vancouver drivers were only issued an $81 ticket for driving over a fire hose — despite the incredible cost to fire and rescue services.
But all of that changed when one of the city's firefighters was severely injured after a negligent driver drove over a fire hose while he was connecting to a fire hydrant.
Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS) spokesperson Cpt. Matthew Trudeau told Vancouver Is Awesome that the individual drove through the fire scene, injuring the firefighter so badly that he was off work for about two years.
After the incident, VFRS approached city council to get a specific Vancouver fire bylaw put in place to allow firefighters to issue tickets on the spot to drivers who park on or drive over fire horses.
Now, a driver who is caught going across a fire hose will get slapped with a staggering $500 ticket — and it isn't the only infraction that warrants the larger fine now, either.
Anyone caught climbing, riding or interfering with "any fire truck or firefighting equipment or apparatus," can get dinged with the $500 fine, too.
Considered "Interference with Firefighting Equipment," the aforementioned fines are chargeable offences in accordance with section 1.2.1.11. of the British Columbia Fire Code.
There are two other chargeable offences under this section:
- No person shall cause a fire alarm system to be activated, or permit, suffer or allow the activation of a fire alarm system when there is no fire or emergency.
- No person shall cause a false report of a fire, or permit, suffer or allow the false reporting of a fire.
Vancouver fire: Interference with Firefighting Equipment
Once police are at the scene of a blaze, firefighters don't have a great deal of difficulty with traffic because they protect the roadways. But Trudeau said the fire crew tends to arrive before the VPD, however.
"It's chaotic in the first few minutes...getting hose lines setting up, imminent rescues, setting up ladders," he explained. "The next step they do is they put cones out across the street to block people and we still have people just driving over cones."
While they don't record statistics, Trudeau estimates approximately two or three fire hoses are severed each year by drivers in the city. Each event puts firefighters on the defensive because they lose water pressure, which could result in fatalities.
In 2021, a taxi driver parked on a fire hose that was being used to battle a blaze in the Downtown Eastside in a single residence occupancy. "Heat from the exhaust manifold melted the hose and it burst under the car," he said.
Most recently, cars drove over a charged fire hose at a second alarm fire on Friday (May 27) in South Vancouver.
"We had multiple cars going over the charged fire lines and we did have a partial rupture," explained VFRS Asst. Chief Richard Warnock, adding that the firefighters lost the supply of pressure and had to go defensive for a while.
Find out more about fire safety with Vancouver Fire and Rescue.
