First responders call out scofflaws blocking hydrants for delaying the response to a five alarm fire in the Bronx.
12:03 AM EST on January 6, 2026
Mayor Mamdani joins first responders in calling on New Yorkers to stop illegally blocking hydrants with their private vehicles.
Fire officials and Mayor Mamdani blasted three drivers who illegally parked their cars at fire hydrants, delaying a response to an all-hands conflagration in the Bronx that injured three people.
FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito told reporters that smokeaters were delayed by the selfish drivers who blocked the three hydrants closest to the inferno, which started at a deli on Findlay Avenue and spread through the five-story apartment building above it. Two firefighters and one civilian were injured.
Mayor Mamdani rushed to the Bronx — a rare mayoral appearance at a non-fatal fire — to call out the drivers for undermining basic safety.
"There are some things that are out of our control as New Yorkers, but there are some things that are completely in our control, and that is if you are parking at a fire hydrant," Hizzoner told reporters.
Firefighters can access hydrants that are blocked by car drivers — but the illegal parking results in delayed action. The illegally parked cars force the fire truck to remain in the street, which makes it far more difficult for firefighters their hoses, Esposito said at the presser.
"When it is very cold our operation is delayed, we have ice issues with the water, but the biggest issue we want to talk about is the parking on the fire hydrants," said Esposito. "Our firefighters are very good, but it does delay us."
The FDNY told Streetsblog that it gave out four criminal court summonses related to Monday's fire. The NYPD also towed two cars for being parked within 15 feet of a fire hydrant, which is illegal at all times.
Mamdani said that his administration would put renewed "focus" on illegal parking because it is "a matter of life and death."
"We need to do everything in our power to make it as easy as possible for the incredible firefighters in this city to be able to do their job, and this is one of the ways that we can do that," he said.
The NYPD said it issued more than 690,000 summonses citywide for blocked hydrants in 2025, up 8.1 percent from 2024. But those tickets are just a tiny fraction of the number of violations.
Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Williamsburg), has tried for years to pass a bill that would allow citizens to report vehicles that block hydrants — and receive a small bounty for their effort. The bill was never brought to a vote by former Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, but Restler said he looks forward to reintroducing the bill this year.
"We are all safer when our hydrants, sidewalks, and bike lanes are free of parked cars. New Yorkers should be empowered to report these obstructions with real accountability, and I look forward to reintroducing our legislation to help citizens play a role in protecting our collective safety," he told Streetsblog.
It's not the first time the FDNY has called out drivers for illegal parking that endangers the public and firefighters. Last February, a driver who parked a hydrant delayed the agency's response to a deadly fire in Brooklyn, prompting the agency to issue its first-ever criminal summons to the owner of the vehicle.
"The FDNY is begging New Yorkers: Please DO NOT block fire hydrants," then-Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker implored.
Before joining Streetsblog, Sophia Isabel Lebowitz was a filmmaker and journalist covering transportation and culture in New York City.
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