A raucous crowd jumping and banging on an apparatus delayed California firefighters responding to a call Saturday.
Oakland crews were on their way to a medical emergency near Lake Merritt shortly after 11:30 p.m., KPIX-TV reports. That's when firefighters encountered a large crowd at Lakeshore and Brooklyn avenues.
Video footage posted online by Oakland's firefighters union shows the crowd gathering around the apparatus at the intersection, slowing the vehicle as it tried to weave through the people. Some members of the crowd can be seen "jumping, dancing and banging on the fire engine," the union stated.
“It took them 14 minutes to get to that call, when it should have taken them two or three minutes,” Oakland Fire Department spokesman Michael Hunt told KPIX, adding that an ambulance reached the patient first.
In its post, the union admonished crowd members not only for delaying the firefighters, but also for their behavior unrelated to the emergency response.
"We recognize the variables of our current reality are broad and complex, but the lack of social distancing amidst a surging pandemic and the amount of illegal fireworks in the middle of wildfire season are extremely concerning," the union stated. "Most of the fires we responded to yesterday (July 4) were caused by illegal fireworks and in a few weeks some of our exposures to Covid 19 will stem from yesterday’s recklessness."
