Two Fire Trucks Collide in Houston
The accident happened just before 11am on Dunlavy at Westheimer. Two Fire Trucks collided and one flipped onto its side, trapping a passenger vehicle beneath it. The crew was reportedly on their way to a building fire on San Felipe......Continue Reading & View More Photos
Numerous Injures Reported in Crash of Houston Firetruck
By LINDSAY WISE, DALE LEZON and ALLAN TURNER Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
March 30, 2009, 12:07PM
As many as 10 people, including eight firefighters, have been taken to hospitals after two Houston Fire Department trucks collided and one of them flipped onto a car in the Montrose area.
Also among the injured is a woman who was riding her bicycle when the truck overturned, briefly pinning her.
The trucks were responding to a report of a possible fire in the 2100 block of San Felipe, but other firefighters later determined that there was no fire, said District Chief Tommy Dowdy.
The injured have been taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center and to St. Joseph Medical Center downtown.
The crash occurred at 10:48 a.m. in the 2600 block of Dunlavy at Westheimer. The trucks were from fire stations 7 and 16.
One of the firefighters was thrown from a truck and suffered serious injuries, Dowdy said. One of the occupants of the car also suffered serious injuries.
The pumper truck was northbound on Dunlavy and the ladder truck was heading east on Westheimer, witnesses reported.
The pumper truck struck the ladder truck from the side and the ladder truck rolled onto the front half of a white Infiniti sedan.
Bernard Proctor, who witnessed the accident, said he heard a loud boom when the firetrucks collided, then a sharp crack when one of the trucks struck a utility pole on the corner.
"It was the loudest sound I ever heard," Proctor said. "It was crazy."
Mario Casas, who works in a boutique at the intersection, said he saw the trucks collide and ran outside to help. Sparks were flying from cables that came down with a utility pole that one of the trucks had hit, he said.
Casas, 23, said he saw a passerby pulling the bicyclist from under the overturned ladder truck.
``I saw the lady. I thought she was dead, but she was breathing,'' he said.
Casas added that several other people from nearby businesses ran to the crash site to help the injured.
Glen Stanton, a retiree who lives nearby, heard the crash.
"Our house is about a half a block away and maybe a little more and the impact shook the house," Stanton said. "The sirens were nonstop and the power went out immediately."
He said he went outside and saw the ladder truck from Station 7 lying atop the car in front of Café Brasil.
"It's quite gruesome just to see the fire engine on its side, it's wheels in the air like that," Stanton said. "Its wheels are horizontal and the cab is up on the curb and hit a phone poll, so all the power's out."
He said he helped direct traffic as dozens of police and firefighters pushed onlookers back and swarmed the accident scene.
“It looks like they’re still trying to get people out of the truck, which is on its side,” he said. “Everything seems very calm. People are not running or crazy.”
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