FIRE bosses have blasted an inconsiderate driver who left a car badly parked in Newton Abbot, blocking the path of an appliance (right).

Fortunately, they were not attending a fire at the time but were on a training exercise.

However, the position of the car caused a delay of some time while the driver tried to get past it.

The silver car was parked on a corner on double yellow lines, meaning crews had difficulty accessing Western Road, off East Street.

Crew members had to get out of their vehicle and help their driver inch his way very slowly through the gap.

A spokesman said: ‘We had arranged our weekly training night to visit a new, large block of flats to familiarise ourselves on access among other things.

‘But it turned out to be a challenging exercise as we had great difficulty accessing Western Road.

‘Due to a silver car parked on a corner on double yellow lines, we had to get all the crew members out to help the driver.

‘This took a few backwards and forwards manoeuvres at reduced speed.

‘This parking was very inconsiderate and luckily this time, a real incident with people trapped in a fire was not an issue.’

The narrow residential roads off East Street are regularly packed with parked cars.

Firefighters eventually arrived at the building, Haydon Court, and were able to continue their familiarisation exercise, looking at dry riser points, fire alarm systems and sprinklers, gaining knowledge in case it is ever required in an emergency.

However, the crews encountered the same problem on their way back to the station which proved even more difficult in the opposite direction.

The spokesman added that even the station’s environmental protection unit, which is smaller than a fire appliance, had trouble at the location.