Shouldn’t park there. (Photo via Statter911.com)

D.C. firefighters responded Friday evening to a house fire on the 900 block of Ninth Street NE. As with many big emergency scenes, the D.C. Fire Department wasn’t the only agency to respond. The Metropolitan Police Department dispatched officers to the house at 925 Ninth Street, too.

But judging from the above photo first spotted by emergency blogger Dave Stattter, it looks like it might have been a bit tricky for firefighters to fix their hose to the nearby hydrant, what with the police sport-utility vehicle parked in front of it.

The D.C. Department of Transportation’s rule about parking near a fire hydrant is pretty clear: “No parking may be designated in front of a fire hydrant and within 10 feet in either direction from the centerline of the fire hydrant.” For civilians, the Department of Motor Vehicles hits drivers who leave their cars within that range with a $50 fine.

Well, it appears that firefighters were able to snag the hose around the car and connect to the hydrant, which supplied the water that eventually doused the fire consuming the vacant house. Frozen Tropics, a blog that focuses on the Capitol Hill and Trinidad neighborhoods, caught video of the blaze in progress: