Firefighters in Florida push smoking fire truck through more than a metre of water as hurricane hits

As Hurricane Ian battered Florida, the City of Naples’ fire department went live on Facebook to show the chaos.

Tarin Bachle, a public information officer, showed viewers catastrophic flooding due to the hurricane Wednesday. The video captured around 3 p.m. shows fire crews wading through what Bachle describes as four-foot (1.2-metre) deep water.

The firefighters can be seen emptying equipment from the truck, wading back and forth from the building through murky water.

Debris floats past as Bachle captures the video from her phone. Over the course of the video, water is actively rising. Gale force winds drown out the audio at times.

“Hey guys, Tarin again, your favourite hurricane girl over here in Naples. Now we have a truck issue and the guys are pushing the truck out of the bay,” she says in the video.

According to those in the video, which had garnered 572,000 views in just a few hours Wednesday afternoon, the firefighters moved the truck out of the building because it started smoking.

“We didn't want the station to burn down,” the fire chief says.

“Please note that everyone here is safe we are all OK,” Bachle says. “It's just our building and our property.”

Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida Wednesday afternoon, bringing 241 km/h winds as it moved inland.

About 2.5 million people were ordered to evacuate the state's southwest region, where Naples is located, before the Category 4 storm arrived.