He Parked His Sports Car on the Hydrant and Yelled ‘Don’t Touch My Car!’ Then He Saw Which Building Was Burning
A man blocked a Boston fire hydrant with his sports car and screamed at firefighters not to touch it. They ran the hose through his windows. Then he saw whose building was burning.
The supply hose was still roaring through the shattered windows of Brent Kessler’s silver sports car on Dorchester Avenue in South Boston. The crowd had been cheering. And Brent, who moments earlier had been screaming at firefighters about lawsuits, was now staring up at the burning rowhouse with a face as white as paper. The green door. The house number. It was one of his own buildings. And the young mother beside him was crying, “The alarms never went off. I told him six times.”
Everyone Out?
The fire started in a third-floor kitchen, where an old space heater, the tenants’ only source of warmth because the building’s boiler had been broken for weeks, tipped over onto a pile of laundry. The flames spread up the walls in minutes.
Not a single smoke detector in the building sounded. Inspectors later found that four had no batteries, two had been disconnected, and one had been painted over.
The reason everyone made it out alive was a seventeen-year-old named Danny O’Rourke, who lived with his grandmother on the second floor. He had smelled the smoke on his way to the bathroom. He ran up and down every staircase in the building, pounding on every door with his fists and screaming “FIRE!” until his voice was gone. He carried the retired bus driver on the first floor down the front steps on his back.
When Engine 2’s crew got water on the fire, thanks to the hose running straight through Brent’s car, they knocked it down within twelve minutes. The third floor was destroyed. The rest of the building was badly damaged by smoke and water. But all fourteen residents were standing on the sidewalk. Firefighters also found a terrified terrier hiding under a bed on the second floor and carried him out in a blanket.
“Every second counts in a rowhouse fire,” the lieutenant told a local TV reporter afterward. “That car could have cost us minutes. We don’t have minutes. So the car became part of the hose line.”
The Car
When the hose was finally disconnected, Brent’s sports car was totaled. Both windows were gone. The interior was soaked through, and the water pressure had torn up the custom leather. A tow truck took it away an hour later while neighbors applauded from their stoops.
Brent tried to file an insurance claim. It was denied. Under Massachusetts law, firefighters may damage or move vehicles blocking a hydrant during an emergency, and the city is not responsible. His policy also excluded damage resulting from illegal parking. He also got another ticket for the hydrant, his forty-third.
The teenager’s video of the hose going through the car got millions of views within two days. In the comments, people from all over the country called it the most satisfying thing they had ever seen.
The Inspection
The fire was only the beginning.
The Boston Fire Marshal’s office and the city’s Inspectional Services Department launched an investigation into the building. Inspectors found missing smoke detectors, a broken boiler, a rotted rear fire escape, and two illegal basement apartments with no second exit. Then they inspected Brent’s other three buildings. They found many of the same problems in every one of them.
The young mother, a nurse named Kayleigh Marsh, gave investigators her six emails about the smoke detectors, every one of them unanswered. Other tenants came forward with photos and text messages of their own.
Brent Kessler was charged with multiple counts of failing to maintain smoke detectors and violating the state sanitary and fire codes. His properties were placed under court-appointed receivership, and a judge ordered him to pay for temporary housing for every displaced tenant. Several tenants also filed civil suits against him.
Southie Takes Care of Its Own
The neighborhood didn’t wait for the courts. Within a week, the bar with the shamrock in the window held a fundraiser for the displaced families. The coffee shop at number 418 gave every resident free breakfast for a month.
Danny O’Rourke, the teenager who pounded on every door, received a commendation from the Boston Fire Department at a ceremony at the Engine 2 firehouse. When the lieutenant shook his hand, Danny asked him one question: “Was it fun? Putting the hose through the car?”
The lieutenant thought about it for a long moment.
“Kid,” he said, “I’ve been doing this for twenty-six years. That was the best day of my career.”
The hydrant in front of 418 Dorchester Avenue has been repainted bright red. Somebody in the neighborhood stenciled a small silver car on the sidewalk next to it, with a big X through it.
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