LIMERICK CITY AND COUNTY

A GOOD EXAMPLE OF BLOCKING

27/07/2023

A GOOD EXAMPLE OF BLOCKING [LIMERICK FIRE SERVICE IN ACTION JUNE 2015]

While I do photograph fire engines I do my best to avoid photographing accidents and the people involved however in one of my photographs you may be able to see one of the drivers.

I was on my way to the Jasmine Palace Restaurant when I noticed the fire brigade arriving at the the scene of what appeared to be a serious road accident. The one thing that I noticed was how the engines were parked ... I had never noticed the technique (known as blocking) before.

The term “blocking” might also be described as the “safe parking” or “safe positioning” of emergency vehicles at roadway incidents. In the fire service, the term most often used is “block” or “blocking.” A block is when an emergency vehicle is used to protect an incident work area by parking across a lane or lanes of traffic. The unit should be stopped upstream of the incident area and parked at an angle across a lane or two of the roadway. In many cases, the shoulder of the road will be considered a lane if that is where the original incident is located. Parking at an angle makes it easier for approaching traffic to identify that your unit is stopped, parked and not moving. Units parked in line with traffic, even on the shoulder, are not as easy to identify as stopped and approaching traffic will often not recognise that the unit is parked instead of moving with traffic.    

 

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