Old Joe is a fire truck that has been, and still is, an important part of the department and is now being rebuilt by the firefighters that work there.

In 1933, a two-ton Dodge Graham Bros. truck was purchased in Detroit by Pleasant Grove and driven back to Pleasant Grove by some firefighters. At the time, it was a simple flatbed truck.

The firefighters modified and built it into a fire truck by fitting it with pumping components, ladders and a 500-foot hose reel.

“Everything was built by the Fire Department. They bought the parts and pieces,” said Jake Larsen, one of the firefighters helping rebuild the truck.

Nobody knows how the truck got its name. “Back then, a lot of fire apparatus had names instead of numbers,” Larsen said.

A firefighter was driving the engine alone southbound on McKee Road north of East Santa Fe Avenue towards a fire, Lt. Gil Peirson said. A compact car was pulled to the side of the road as drivers typically do for engines with their lights and sirens on.

As the engine approached the car around 8 a.m. the car swerved out in front of the engine, he said. The firefighter turned left to avoid a crash and the engine overturned.

The firefighter had lacerations to his head and he was taken to a local hospital as a precaution, according to Battalion Chief Mark Pimentel. He declined to release the firefighter's name.

Wellington Fire Protection District Engine 1 was responding to an incident on I-25 when it “was struck by another vehicle” going north on the highway, according to the fire department.

No firefighters were injured. The highway was closed in both directions at Owl Canyon.