The Gloucester Township (NJ) fire district will hold a push-in ceremony for its new apparatus—Squad 88, a 2021 Pierce 1,500-gpm rescue-pumper—tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the firehouse at 1450 Blackwood Clementon Rd., reports NJ.com.

The ceremony will conclude after an apparatus procession to the Chews Landing Firehouse—Squad 88’s new home—at 43 Somerdale Rd.

Squad 88 has been assigned to the township’s first 24/7/365 on-duty engine company, covering the Chews Landing and Blackwood districts while also providing mutual aid for the township’s four other fire districts as well as other surrounding communities, the report notes.

The new apparatus was designed by a committee of fire officials and firefighters from the Chews Landing and Blackwood districts.

Squad 88 will replace a 17-year-old pumper, which is now a reserve.

Two Antrim County (MI) firefighters sustained minor injuries after a bridge near the intersection of Alden Highway and Comfort Road collapsed from underneath their apparatus, leaving it dangling off the fallen roadway, reports upnorthlive.com.

The collapse happened Wednesday morning just prior to 1 a.m., as severe thunderstorms came pouring down.

One firefighter was treated on scene for injuries, while the other was taken to the hospital—both are expected to be fine.

Puget Sound (WA) Fire recently dedicated a new $1.5 million ladder truck that will be based at Station 74, reports kentreporter.com.

The new apparatus, designed with enhanced safety features, replaces a ladder that went into service in 2007 and is just shy of 95,000 miles; the predecessor will be put into reserve status. Both trucks are Pierce-built.

Officials say ladder trucks usually spend 15 years in front-line service and five years as a reserve.

Puget Sound Fire has an apparatus replacement fund in the capital budget that allows for the planned replacement of rigs, the report notes.

A firefighter in Elkin (NC) was injured after a fire truck overturned three times en route to a call Wednesday morning, reports wfmynews2.com.

The Jot-Um-Down Volunteer Fire Department apparatus, which crashed on Twin Oaks Road in Elkin, was traveling 45 mph as the truck ran off the road, re-entered the roadway, and hit a culvert. It rolled over three times before coming to a stop.

Related: Four Firefighters out of Hospital After Douglas County, OR, Rollover Crash

The firefighter was taken to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital and is in stable condition.

Nick Morgan

Mail Tribune, Medford, Ore.

(MCT)

Aug. 12—Four firefighters working the night shift of a wildfire burning in Douglas County were sent to the hospital after the driver of their crew van reportedly fell asleep at the wheel, causing a rollover crash.

At 9:53 a.m. Wednesday, a crew van part of a convoy of wildland firefighters working the Skyline Ridge Complex left the roadway, struck a guardrail for about 70 feet before driving up a hillside and rolling over in the 15000 block of Tiller Trail Highway near Days Creek, according to a release issued by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

The four firefighters inside, part of a 20-person crew working the fire riding in three separate vehicles, were rushed by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, according to the sheriff’s office. Two other vehicles containing crew members were not involved in the crash.

Kent Romney, a fire information officer at the fire’s base camp near Myrtle Creek, described the firefighters’ injuries as bumps, bruises and bloody noses. He said the firefighters were taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Neither alcohol nor excessive speed were factors in the single vehicle crash, according to the sheriff’s office, and no citations or arrests were made. The preliminary investigation determined that the 38-year-old driver, identified only as a wildland firefighter from Salem, fell asleep while driving the crew back to camp.

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