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While firefighters were responding to a medical emergency in Everett, Washington, someone jumped in their fire engine and took off. That individual drove recklessly, hitting 16 cars, making some of them look like squished grapes. After all, the fire engine weighs about 35,000 lbs.
Stop Sticks deployment precedes fatal crash in police chase.
Thankfully, the suspect only hit cars that were parked on the side of residential streets, otherwise someone probably would’ve been seriously hurt or killed.
After wrecking cars, street signs, and landscaping in five different locations in the city, the suspect ditched the fire engine and took off on foot. Police tried using officers and a K9 to track down the person, but they came up emptyhanded.
Firefighters never saw the suspect, so it sounds like there’s not even a description. Police are asking for surveillance footage from anyone who lives in the area, probably hoping a camera caught the suspect’s face.
The worst part is now the fire engine is damaged, so it has to be repaired and won’t be available to respond to emergencies in the city. Thankfully, the fire department has another fire engine in reserve, but the repairs are going to cost a good chunk of taxpayer money.
In other words, someone had a joyride on the community’s dime, then skipped off without consequences.
For a long time now we’ve questioned why a company hasn’t created a device to prevent random people from hopping in first responder vehicles and driving off in them. It could be something with an NFC chip which allows the transmission to shift out of park, so without it the vehicle can only idle.
After all, in many situations, first responders have to leave their engine running. But we see fairly often stories of people just hopping inside one and driving off. This case, like many other, ended with a lot of carnage.
Images via Everett Fire Department
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