No excuse for idle fire truck blocking sidewalk

A sidewalk is no place to park a fire truck that isn’t being used to battle a blaze.

Mostly people see firefighters as heroes who walk with the angels, risking their lives to save us from flames and smoke, or being the first on the scene at an accident or a health crisis.

It makes it easier to overlook their shortcomings, but when they routinely block the sidewalk in front of a fire hall to wash their trucks, somebody needs to point out the problems they’re creating.

Ken Ferguson emailed me a photo of a fire truck parked across the sidewalk in front of the fire hall on the north side of Queen St., east of Woodbine Ave., forcing pedestrians to skirt the traffic in the westbound curb lane of Queen.

“The firefighters at this station very frequently pull their truck out to wash it around 8.30 a.m., the same time that kids and mothers are walking by and rush hour is in effect,” said Ferguson.

“They block the entire sidewalk, forcing pedestrians onto the road,” he said, noting that no firefighters can be seen in the photo, who could steer pedestrians around the traffic and make sure they are not endangered by it.

“Note too that they could have stopped short of the sidewalk. If a citizen did this, they would get a $60 ticket.

“Firefighters are all about safety, so what are they thinking?”

The sidewalk is always busy in that area – the gateway to the Beaches stretch of Queen – while traffic is constant, creating an unsafe convergence of people and vehicles that should not happen.

Surely they could find enough room to wash their trucks while keeping them off the sidewalk.  And if not, it’s time to find another place.