CBRM firefighters want to hand out tickets to drivers who park in fire lanes

After a yearlong campaign aimed at stopping driversfrom parking in fire lanes, Cape Breton Regional Fire and Emergency Services is looking to take the next step to stop the practice.

The department saidit plans to askthe province for permission to allow fire prevention officersto hand out tickets to offenders.

"Our prevention operators are already special constables with the province so that they can enforce building codes as well as burning regulations," saidCraig MacNeil, the deputy fire chief.

Now the department wants them"to be able to provide some of the enforcement."

While MacNeil could notrecall aninstance in whicha vehicle blocked access while firefighters were responding to an emergency, he saidhe wants to avoid such a scenario.

During the campaign last summer, traffic service Const.Brian Barkhouse saidCape Breton Police had handed out dozens of tickets.

"We issued approximately about 40 tickets over those few hours sporadically over the couple of weeks within all the three divisions of the municipality," he said.

Both MacNeil and Barkhousesay local business owners shouldeither alert the offending drivers when they park in a fire lane ornotify police.

"Businesses have to be more cognizant to report those issues to the police so that we know where the problems are," Barkhouse said.