TERRELL, Texas — No firefighters were injured after a fire truck blew a tire and crashed on U.S. Highway 80 on Monday afternoon.
TERRELL, Texas — No firefighters were injured after a fire truck blew a tire and crashed on U.S. Highway 80 on Monday afternoon.
Returning from a mutual aid grass fire in Elmo, Terrell Volunteer Fire Department’s Tanker 1 experienced a blow-out on its front left tire while traveling westbound on U.S. Highway 80 in between Terrell, Texas, and Elmo, Texas, at an s-curve in the highway.
The blow-out forced the fire truck into a steep embankment in the highway’s median where the truck ramped into the eastbound lanes. The tanker came to a stop a couple hundred yards from where the blow-out occurred.
“When I saw the tire blow, all I could do was hang on,” said firefighter Jimmy Gill who credits the driver, Terry Van Sickle Jr., with keeping the truck upright.
“He did a superb job keeping it inline,” he said. “I thought it would overturn.”
Firefighters say the truck is likely totaled with damages to, among other things, the front fender, front axle, frame, side bins, and rear axle. The tanker’s pump was pushed out from its housing indicating the frame is likely bent.
The left lane of eastbound U.S. Highway 80 was closed while a heavy-duty wrecker worked to clear the truck from the scene.
The two were returning to from a mutual aid call for the Elmo Volunteer Fire Department for a grass fire sparked by a hay baler. The fire had consumed several acres of pasture and a handful of hay bales off County Road 350, just north of U.S. Highway 80 east of Elmo.
