RESIDENTS have raised safety fears after parked cars delayed fire engines from tackling a garage blaze in the town centre.

Crews responded quickly to the fire in Stanier Street on Saturday night but the two emergency vehicles were stuck halfway up the steep, narrow road for 10 minutes while officers moved a parked car.

Residents say if it had been a house fire, the extra time could have made the difference between life and death.

And some are calling on authorities to help prevent the problem happening again in Stanier Street or any of the narrow roads in the area.

Resident Ben Jones, 27, who first spotted the fire, said: “The fire service were heard saying that if this was a house fire it would have been too late. It did add five to 10 minutes on to it because they had to get out, think what the best way to move the car was and then actually move the car.

“And obviously they tried to do their best but the longer it takes the more problems it could cause. Say it was a house fire and it was a resident who was elderly.”

Ben, a barman at the Menzies Hotel, said the fire took place just before 9.45pm in a garage associated with a house in Dixon Street. He said the garage contained wood.

“I heard a lot of crackling and I was trying to think what it was. I looked out of my bedroom window and all of a sudden I realised the entire garage was on fire,” he said.

“I went down the stairs and into the people’s garden to find out if they knew it had started or not. As I walked up the garden, all my arm hair got burned by the intense heat and my eyes were sore with the smoke. They didn’t know about the fire.”

Ben helped direct fire crews to the scene but said the engines got about halfway up the road and could not get any further due to parked cars. All were parked within the residents bays, he said, but the gap was still too narrow. He said the firefighters hand to move one of the cars by rocking it.

Ben is now calling on Swindon Council and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service to take action.

He said a list of narrow streets should be drawn up so officials can identify where a similar problem might arise and take precautions.

Ben said the width of the parking bays could be reduced slightly to encourage people to park nearer the kerb. He also suggested that when there is a fire in a narrow street, crews in a faster vehicle could be dispatched ahead of the fire engines to start moving parked cars.

Fellow Stanier Street resident Angie Ball agreed.

“I was scared because I suppose if it had been a house fire, a lot could have happened within that time,” said the 56-year-old.

“Luckily it was what it was but if it had been a house fire there could have been loss of life.”

Alan Harper, group manager for Swindon division of Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "When called to the garage fire, to get through we would have had to damage several cars, so what happened is to get through the crews physically managed to bounce one of the cars out of the way."

He explained that, before going to these areas of Swindon, officers assess whether it is important to send fire engines. He said the service was working closely with Swindon Council to tackle the issue, and the council was planning to introduce parking on one side only in some streets with parking on both sides.