A truck traveling through smoke and fog in an emergency scene on Highway 93 Saturday morning hit and totaled a Victor (MT) Fire and EMS structure engine.

Nobody was killed, though a report on nbcmontana.com says four people—including two firefighters—were taken to the hospital; two passengers in the truck suffered unknown injuries and a male and female firefighter had minor injuries—all were treated and released.

The accident happened two miles north of Victor and north of Bell Crossing at about 7:30 a.m., the report says. Firefighters were on the scene because someone was burning a nearby field and the smoke moved to the highway; fog also hurt visibility.

A 50-foot tire mark could be seen from the truck that hit the apparatus, the report says. Officials say driving at 10 miles per hour would be too fast for the conditions, though vehicles were traveling at speeds upwards of 60mph.

By Alan M. Petrillo

The Snyder (NY) Fire Department wanted to replace a 20-year-old heavy rescue truck, and had some pretty specific ideas about what they wanted to carry and where the equipment would be placed on their new rescue. The truck committee examined heavy rescue trucks displayed at the Lancaster County (PA) Firemen’s Association annual Fire Expo in Harrisburg, and later looked at a neighboring department’s heavy rescue. After doing its due diligence, the department chose Rescue 1 to build a new walk-through heavy rescue.

Jack Bills, territory manager for Colden Enterprises, who sold the heavy rescue to Snyder, says he was introduced to Snyder chief Mark Van Horn at the Harrisburg show, and they talked about what was possible on a heavy rescue and what wasn’t. “Then they looked at the heavy rescue that Rescue 1 had built for Getzville (NY) Fire Company, and decided they wanted Rescue 1 to build their new truck,” Bills says.

Van Horn points out that the new truck is on a Spartan Gladiator chassis and cab with a 24-inch raised roof and seating for 11 firefighters. “There is seating for the driver, officer, three rear-facing firefighters, and six firefighters in the interior walkway, all in self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats except for the driver,” Van Horn says. “We’ve bounced back and forth between walk-around and walk-through rescues. Our first rescue was a 1950s Ward LaFrance walk-around, followed by a 1974 walk-through, then a 1990s Chevy walk-around, the Sutphen walk-around, and now the Rescue 1 walk-through.”

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