Caught on camera: Car plows through fire hydrant, slams into wall of Punta Gorda pub

A car knocked over a fire hydrant and slammed into the wall at the Celtic Ray Public House in Punta Gorda.

Surveillance video caught the whole ordeal on Friday, from the black Camaro veering off the street in the distance after sideswiping a nearby car, dislodging the hydrant and eventually running into the exterior wall of the restaurant.

“Standing inside, everything normal,” said Danny DeLodge, manager of the Celtic Ray. “We heard a loud crash. That was the car going through the fire hydrant, and then he hit the building.”

The video shows a white vehicle turning left from Marion Avenue onto Nesbit Street, when the Camaro, which was headed straight, hit the side of the white car and veered off the road.

The Camaro then went through the fire hydrant and into the wall of the Celtic Ray.

Inside the pub, video also shows the impact shook the brick wall so hard it pushed a table.

“I had run out from behind the bar, and there were already a couple of gentlemen out there cutting the airbags to try to get them out, holding the door open and pulled the passenger side open, and he was conscious, seemed to have his wits about him, had a pretty good understanding to what had happened,” said DeLodge.

Pub owner Kevin Doyle said that wasn’t the end of the issue. The fire hydrant shot water high up into the air.

Doyle and DeLodge said police wasted no time in responding and put the gushing fire hydrant to rest.

At the end of the day, everyone was just glad there were no injuries. The crash could have easily ended way worse.

“There were patrons sitting there just minutes prior in that corner, like within minutes,” DeLodge said.

Neither the driver nor anyone in the pub was injured.