Three firefighters with the Superior, Nebraska fire department were injured while they were responding to a wildfire on Sunday. Two were treated and released, while another is in the hospital awaiting surgery scheduled for Tuesday.
The Superior Express described the accident on their Facebook page:
Appears a fire truck with four firemen on board collided with a cedar tree where a county road suddenly goes from good to poor and makes a slight jog just over the crest of a hill.
The Superior Express has been posting updates on the condition of the firefighters.
No need to rush to these wildland fires. It’s just grass and trees, and maybe some homes… but they can be rebuilt. Remember… houses are just another fuel model. I hope they did not have people riding on the top of the engine like a lot of volunteer and state agencies do when putting out the fires. That’s a sure way to get killed by roll overs and falling off and getting burned over or run over. Laziness kills.
Looks like a relatively minor TC if seat belts were being used and air bags were properly working and activated.
It looks like a three person cab on that rig, I would hope that they were at least all in the cab. I don’t have a good source on numbers, but I thought that vehicle related accidents were the leading cause of wildland firefighter fatal injuries? Emmett is right on about the speed issue.
After Aviation, driving accidents have been the leading killer of wildland fire fighters for more than 20 year. It’s more important to get to the fire safely than it is to try and get there fastest!