They rush to the rescue when we need help, but you could say the London Fire Department (LFD) hit a snag on its way to an emergency Thursday night. “It did deploy approximately 200 feet of hose. It does have a heavier nozzle at the end, so there is always that risk,” said Deputy Fire Chief Gary Bridge. He’s referring to the hose from engine #4 from LFD headquarters - fire station #1 on Horton Street. Video posted to social media shows a London fire truck heading west on Queens Avenue at Ridout Street responding to a call. Part of the truck’s fire hose can be seen trailing behind. It snakes through the underside of two cars at the stop light, before the video stops with the fire engine outside Museum London. Bridge says this type of equipment mishap is uncommon but does happen. “When the nozzle is here and it actually comes down, it does put some pressure on the hose, which runs the potential that it can come out. We do have what’s called a dust-flap that’s on here, that comes down, to also prevent it from occurring. But occasionally this comes out, it can result in the remainder of the hose coming out. As I said, this is not what our intention is. Our intention is to make sure that we can respond as quickly as possible, in a deployable way, but on occasion this has occurred,” he explained. It’s become commonplace to pose fake videos online, so much so that one could easily mistake this real video for AI-generated content. And one tech expert says that’s something we should be concerned about. Carmy Levy says this is especially the case when it comes to emergency situations and trying to distinguish between real and fake. “When emergencies happen in our communities, information is what allows us to decide what to do next. It’s absolutely critical for the community to know what’s happening. If you’re seeing imagery that is not real, but it looks like it’s real, it could get people into trouble. Maybe they will evacuate when they shouldn’t. Maybe they will not evacuate when they should. But that sort of skipped moment in the case of an emergency can be the difference between, in some cases, life and death,” cautioned Levy. In the meantime, LFD says no one was hurt in the hose mishap, and Bridge adds there was no damage to the stopped vehicles that he’s aware of. The hose sustained approximately $3,000 damage. “It’s disappointing that this has been posted. However, we recognize it did occur, we recognize that we can always take opportunities to improve our hose deployment. But I can ensure the public that our firefighters want to ensure that we have public safety always at mind,” said Bridge.
