The driver of a fire engine that was involved in a crash in Orange Park Friday has been placed on administrative leave for not disclosing a previous arrest for driving under the influence.

David Nettles, 27, was arrested in Duval County for driving under the influence in his personal vehicle while off-duty last November.

Nettles violated policy by failing to disclose information about the arrest to the Clay County Public Safety Department, according to officials.

Nettles, an engineer, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into his failure to notify the county of his arrest.

Nettles was driving a fire engine on the way to a call around 9:45 p.m. Jan. 15 when it was hit by a car.

The driver of the car was critically injured and a passenger had minor injuries as a result of the crash.

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The Danielson Borough Council is exploring the best way to pay for a new $1 million fire truck for the Danielson Fire Department.

It will spend the next month researching the issue ahead of a Feb. 17 public hearing on the expenditure, council member Lynn LaBerge said.

The department plans to buy the bucket/tower truck through South Dakota-based Pierce Manufacturing, the same company that is building a new ladder truck for the Dayville Fire Company. And because the purchase of both trucks would fall within a certain window, both departments are eligible for cost discounts, LaBerge said, though no firm discount numbers were available.

The tower truck, if bought, would replace a 26-year-old model that department Chief Gerry Marcheterre said has reached the end of its useful life.

Marcheterre said there will likely have to be some minor reinforcement work made to the station floor before a new truck is moved in. He said this latest purchase would be the last the department needs for the foreseeable future, as two other fire vehicles are both less than 5 years old.

In December, Dayville Fire District residents approved using $975,000 from a non-recurring truck fund to order a 107-foot ladder truck, which will also serve as a department engine vehicle.

Officials several years ago borrowed from the truck fund to build a new training facility. Those funds have since been repaid, allowing the district to pay for the vehicle with cash, potentially saving tens of thousands in retail cost and interest. Officials said the existing ladder truck, a 25-year-old model, will be sold, likely to a community that can't afford to purchase a new truck.

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Four Copper Mountain firefighters are lucky they were not injured after a semi-truck slammed into their fire truck along Interstate 70.

Sam Parker with the Copper Mountain Metropolitan District says the Copper Mountain Fire Department responds to many wrecks along I-70. Earlier this week, they were on the interstate near Vail Pass parking their fire truck behind a state trooper who was responding to a crash.

Suddenly, a tanker truck lost control and slammed into the fire truck with four firefighters inside.

Firefighters said that had the truck not been there, the state trooper responding to the wreck and the tow-truck driver may have been hit by that semi-truck.

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Modern firefighting vehicles are fitted to perform a wide range of tasks, of which the most important is battling major fire. They come with pumps, hydraulic ladders, tanks that can hold roughly 400 to 500 gallons of water--enough to put out a vehicle fire--and a slew of other equipment. They also have enough space to transport up to eight firefighters.

Yet fighting actual fire makes up only a small portion of a firefighter's job. Of the 31.9 million calls routed to all U.S. fire departments in 2013, only 1.2 million (or about 4 percent) were fire-related, according to the latest data from the National Fire Protection Association. Most of the time they're attending to other emergencies, including road accidents -- the very ones city street designers try to prevent, as Mother Nature Network points out. Still others take on "eclectic" roles.

Overall, America is behind the curve when it comes to rethinking the fire truck. As Lloyd Alter writes at Mother Nature Network, Europe, where street lanes tend to be tighter, has a line of compact fire trucks that perform the same tasks as those in the U.S. but are far more maneuverable. Watch as two fire engines--one from the U.S. and the other from Europe--drive around an obstacle of cones:

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