The driver crashed into Engine 142, belonging to the Florahome-Grandin Fire Department, Saturday night. The fire truck was sitting at an intersection of Coral Farms Road and State Road 100, according to a Facebook post by the fire department.  

Some of the firefighters said the moment is similar to saying farewell to an old friend.  

"All of us have learned to drive it and have used it in many fires. It's done it's service so it's bittersweet," Nicole Wright, a firefighter with the Horseheads Fire Department, said. "It's also kind of exciting because we have something that's much safer that's brand new and something we can use."  

The new truck cost $420,000. The purchase was made possible by the Village of Horseheads.

Police believe the preliminary cause of the crash was excessive speed on a wet roadway. News outlets report the patient in the ambulance who died was 36-year-old Nyema Jackson of Jackson. The medic was identified as 36-year-old Zachary Pruitt of Humboldt.

Authorities say the ambulance driver, Deborah Schichtel, sustained non-life threatening injuries. She told police the ambulance hydroplaned before it hit the wall.

Now — a decade later — mold was found again in the fire station’s sleeping area. The cause? Excessive humidity.  

“This is our third iteration in 14 years. It’s a little heartbreaking,” Mayor Marion Grayson said of the mold problems plaguing the central fire station. “We worked with professionals all along the way. Not to knock anybody, this time I want to see our tax dollars being used and there not be another iteration in five years.”

The city has drawn up what it hopes to be a permanent solution to the fire station’s lingering mold issue.