That picture pretty much contradicts what you were saying
The hose is going through the car . . . which means the windows were smashed out, or somebody lowered the windows. Personally, I think the windows were smashed out. If the owner had been present, he would have moved the car, rather than letting the guys route the hose through the car
And since the hose is going through the car, that means it’s not going over the roof or under the car
The firefighters apparently didn’t think that was easier
db4690 - I have a different interpretation. It shows that the firefighters in this situation were not concerned with kinks in the hose. Some people have claimed that they smash windows and thread the hose through the car in order to prevent kinks and that’s why they don’t go over or under a car.
Anyway, I think it would be very difficult to kink a fire hose. The picture above makes it look to me as though the firefighters didn’t need to smash windows in this case. It looks like the angle of the bend in the hose wouldn’t be worse and might even be better if they went around or under the car.
That sure looks like a police car or maybe the Chief’s car. At any rate, nice discussion but I don’t intend to park in a fire lane or ever park in front of a hydrant.
When dad was on the firefighting crew of an AF Huskie helicopter the first thing done after opening the tag-along pod at a crash scene was to lay down foam and drag out the fire axes. There was not one second going to be spent on trying to open an aircraft canopy or even to discuss it. It was busted open and the pilot, or pilots, dragged out with hopefully everyone making it out safely.
Am I missing something or does the above pic seem to show an unnecessary routing of the hose through the car windows (to make a point, perhaps)?
That is exactly what it appears to be. Running the hose from the hydrant along the passenger side of the car then up through the windows, down the driver side of the car and forward when it could have obviously been routed from the hydrant directly forward is not only unnecessary vandalism but counter productive.
If they have a real emergency, I don’t think they want to send an advance crew out first to scope the situation, then call in or reposition to fight a fire. Especially when fires can get out of control in a few minutes.
@Bing
Perhaps I wasn’t clear. The same trucks used to fight a fire pull up out front first and gauge the severity of the situation. There are a lot of false alarms and buildings with fire lanes are usually big enough they can’t fight every possible location from one spot. Most of the time, they do not know where the fire is until they ask or survey it themselves. Then, they re-position for best access to fight it.
I was at Costco today, and something disturbing happened in the parking lot
I parked my car, locked it, and headed to the store front. A gangster-type guy came up to me and said “Do you have 25 cents? I don’t have a job right now” He had a baseball cap, shorts, sneakers, long tube socks up to his knees, and many tattoos. Plus, he was riding one of those beach cruiser type bicycles. It was really pathetic, he looked like a gangster, but he was in his 40s or 50s
I just shook my head and walked on. As I was walking away, he said “I don’t want to have to rob you.”
I suppose the idea is to give the guy 25 cents voluntarily, versus he roughs you up and takes much more than that
I’ve never been threatened but I have been shaken down. Only in Ohio though. Wife goes into the drug store. I stay outside and have a smoke by my car with Minnesota plates. I’ve had them walk from the bus stop to me, drive through and park his car, and walk through the lot diverting to me. Dollar for the bus or couple bucks for a hamburger or I gave one guy $10 for gas to get home. I keep dollar bills and maybe 5’s and 10’s in my pocket and larger bills in my billfold so I never have to go to my billfold and usually can pull a few bills out of my pocket so I don’t have to show how much I have. Also after teaching personal protection, I give myself an F for allowing them to get close enough to shake my hand. Very stupid on my part.
I think its more depressing than threatening though. I had one guy even crying telling me his story of drugs and getting off them. I just wanted to say walk straight, take some pride in yourself, pull your pants up, and go for it. Problem is you never really know which ones really do need an extra buck.
"Problem is you never really know which ones really do need an extra buck. "
+1
I almost always ignore beggars, but many years ago, when I was in San Diego, I observed a man and his young (probably no more than 8 y.o) daughter approaching people near the historic RR station, asking for change. About an hour later, they were still in the same area and the little girl looked so pathetic that I gave the man $10, and told him that he had to promise me that he was going to get something for the child to eat. They did walk directly to a fast food joint, so I think that he did do as I requested.
Or…maybe I was duped.
However, I would not have been able to sleep that night if I had ignored them.
@db4690, did you report him to the police? Normally they wouldn’t do anything, but threats like that deserve an all expenses paid vacation in the city jail for the creep.
If that guy had tried that crap with me I’d have told him to hang on a minute while I got some loose cash out of the glove box.
Instead of cash that punk would be faced with a .380 Semi-Auto and told to revise his lifestyle; all legalities aside. My temperament has a short fuse; consequences be darned.
It would be difficult for me to give him the benefit of the doubt. My only thought would be wondering if he’s still on probation or not or has outstanding warrants…
Not that I’ve got a huge problem with tattoos as I’ve got one myself and prefer to keep it at that number. A winged skull and crossbones Harley Davidson tat courtesy of a WTH moment one year at Sturgis.
It seems that there have been a fair number of panhandlers hanging around the Wal Mart parking lot in this area. Half are asking for spare change and the other half are “stuck while traveling cross country and need money for gas”.
A few months ago some scroungy reject approached me and asked if I wanted to buy a pair of boots as he needed some money. What boots? The ones I’m wearing he says…
Not.
Panhandlers in the parking lot should be reported to the store management, where I work the managers are better trained and authorized to kick them off the lot if they’re causing a problem. Usually the panhandler just moves on to another lot.
I’m a bit antsy over firearm discussions but that .380 was my “traveling insurance” so to speak for about 15 years; either in the glove box or tucked away on a motorcycle.
Thankfully tucked away is where it remained although one Saturday night in Denver I was very close to untucking it on some mouthy schmuck who had no idea what my hand was on.
Found out that he assaulted some guy about 2/3 his size out in the parking lot about 15 minutes later and the ambulance was on its way…
