Parked vehicles leave firefighters in a tight spot

Thestar.com
March 25, 2019
Jack Lakey

There’s no excuse for getting in the way of fire trucks, unless parking signs that kept vehicles out of their way were taken down and not replaced.

Toronto Fire Station 134, on Montgomery Ave., just west of Yonge St. and north of Eglinton Ave., was built in 1932 and has been there for so long that the Tudor-style building is designated a heritage property.

A fire truck departing station 134, on Montgomery Ave., just west of Yonge St., has a hard time completing a right turn onto the street, due to a truck stopped in a no-parking area. Signs that formerly designated it a fire route were removed to accommodate construction but have not been put back up.

With just two bays for trucks, it’s one of the smallest fire halls in the city, but for people in the neighbourhood, it’s no less important than stations with a lot more trucks and firefighters.

When its pumper truck pulls out to answer a call, it needs lots of space to turn onto the street. But lately, the space is often occupied by vehicles that shouldn’t be there, which makes for a tight squeeze at a bad time.

A firefighter who asked not to be named sent us a note saying construction began a few years ago on a new building on the south side of Montgomery, right across the street from the station.

When the work began, several signs that designated the area across from the station as a fire route were removed, said the firefighter, and have yet to be replaced, even though the building is now finished.

“Recently, people started moving into the building. Without the ‘No Parking -- Fire Route’ signs, we are having issues with vehicles blocking our egress.

“Moving trucks, private cars, TTC WheelTrans buses, handicapped school buses and Cedar Springs water trucks are now parking along the south side of Montgomery, impeding our (trucks) because there are no signs.”

Efforts by fire officials to get the signs put back up have so far failed, he said, partly because the city’s response is that the street is not a fire route.

“The city said they would be installing ‘no stopping’ signs soon (but) as of Mar. 18, the signs were still not installed.”

We went there Thursday and watched as a pumper truck pulled out of the fire hall and had barely enough room to squeeze past a construction truck parked on the south side of the street.

STATUS: Allen Pinkerton, who’s in charge of traffic signs and markings, said the street does not qualify for an official designation as a fire route, but confirmed that it does meet the criteria for no-parking or no stopping signs. He said he’d look into it and make sure that signs prohibiting parking across from the station are installed ASAP.