Firefighters publish a video of drivers failing to form "corridor of life"

Before noon on Jan. 26 a passenger car caught fire in Puchały (Pruszków County). Two people who were in the vehicle managed to get out on their own before the rescuers arrived. Karol Kroć of Pruszków Fire Service said at the time that one south-bound lane was blocked.

Two fire service units were dispatched to the fire: one from Pruszków, and the other from Raszyn. Firefighters from the latter sent us a fragment of a footage showing their route from the Opacz junction up to the fire location. Due to some drivers' conduct, the unit had serious troubles to pass through.

The two-minute footage shows how difficult it was for the fire service unit to squeeze between other vehicles stuck in a gridlock. Some drivers managed to position their cars correctly, while others made unpredictable moves once the fire truck approached them. Firefighters from Raszyn told tvnwarszawa.pl reporter Artur Węgrzynowicz that the car fire had fully developed when they were stuck in traffic. "The police were the first to arrive at the scene and they cordoned off the car, so that other drivers wouldn't have to pass right next to the burning vehicle," they said.

Upon sending us the footage, the wanted to call upon all drivers for more consideration. "Any driver encountering a gridlock forming on an expressway should immediately start seeking space to form an emergency corridor. This goes both to drivers in the immediate vicinity of the accident, who can see that rescue intervention will be necessary, as well as those who enter the gridlock further away," Raszyn Volunteer Fire Service cautions.

The firefighters stress that the video shows how late were the reactions of many drivers, which resulted in the blocked passage. "In this particular case, luckily, no one was hurt. But there are accidents in which people are in need of immediate help. In such cases every single minute may be crucial for their life or health," they underscore.