FIREFIGHTERS racing to tackle blazes in our city can be confronted by a host of difficulties before they even reach their destination.

Readers will be aware that, in recent days in The Arboretum, firefighters have even had to abandon their engines and run to incidents because parked cars have obstructed their most direct route.

And today we report how members of the brigade answering a call-out on Friday evening were confronted by every driver's nightmare - a boy, aged between 13 and 15, decided to play "chicken" and jumped out in front of the fire engine, which was travelling at around 50mph.

The fire enginer's driver had to brake the 14-tonne vehicle and swerve it around the schoolboy.

Fortunately, he missed him by inches and narrowly avoided hitting parked cars on the right hand side of the road.

As Alec Mackie, the fire brigade's spokeman says, the boy's actions were utterly stupid.

We're sure readers will agree the culprit should be brought to book and that, if anyone knows who he is, they should tell the police.

The youngster needs to learn, in no uncertain terms, what the terrible cost of his stupidity might have been. It could have cost him his own life, the lives of the five firefighters inside the vehicle or even the lives of those the brigade was rushing to help.

We can only be thankful that the highly-skilled driving of the firefighter avoided such a disaster.