Veteran firefighter at recruits crash scene had ‘never seen something at this magnitude’
The cause of a 2011 crash involving a fire truck at a recruiting station in New Brunswick, Canada, is under investigation. The vehicle’s first responders at the scene say the crash wasn’t their fault.
The fire truck had left the station and was returning after finishing a shift at a nearby firehouse when it crashed into a building on West St, near the corner of George St and McLeod St, near the University of New Brunswick. The truck was traveling at a speed of 20 knots, reaching a top speed of over 50 mph, when it collided with another vehicle.
All seven fire trucks were in the area at the time of the crash. One of the truck’s occupants died, police said.
The vehicle involved in Friday’s crash has no fatalities, though the driver was taken to the hospital for observation, according to the Department of Transportation. The other occupants were all taken to hospital after the crash.
The driver of the vehicle has not been named, but the emergency services said Friday he had not been on the job in a little over a year.
“He’s a veteran firefighter in the City of Moncton,” said fire chief Chris Furlong. “He had been, what, a couple of years? And I certainly wouldn’t be going to a recruit crash if I thought he was not a competent firefighter to do what he was doing.”
“We were working a traffic stop,” he added. “The officer saw the crash and I immediately took over responding with my crew.”
The second fire truck involved in the crash was sent to respond to the scene by a different company, which had just finished its shift at a different firehouse.
The truck had left the station before the crash happened but had been brought to the scene by another firefighter, said Furlong, who is also the fire chief at the New Jersey station. Furlong said the truck had three crew members from the station.
The truck driver, whose brother was on board with the fire truck, was a “very dedicated individual,” according to the department’s traffic collision prevention officer.
“He had the most exemplary job record we can remember in a fire truck operator,” Furl
