A Chickasaw County field fire earlier this week led to a pair of fire trucks being involved in separate crashes with non-emergency vehicles.
Chickasaw County Sheriff Ryan Shawver says field fire was located at 2580 Roanoke Avenue, just north of Fredericksburg, shortly after 2:30 pm Monday (10.28) afternoon. While firefighters were attempting to put out the fire, there were two vehicle wrecks involving fire trucks.
According to the crash reports, the Fredericksburg Fire Department requested mutual aid from the Lawler and New Hampton fire departments. A Lawler Fire tanker truck, driven by 45-year-old Jason Maklenburg of Lawler, was southbound and entered an area of thick, heavy smoke blowing across the roadway. Maklenburg said he slowed down going through the smoke when a Jeep, driven by 75-year-old Donald Briggs of Cedar Falls, drifted into the southbound lane and struck the fire truck head-on.
Briggs said he estimated he was going about 10 mph at the time of the wreck and was not sure if his SUV had drifted into southbound lane. Briggs and two passengers were checked out by medical staff at the scene, but did not require transport to a hospital. No citations were issued at that time.
In the second crash, a Fredericksburg grass fire truck was traveling south in the northbound lane/shoulder with the emergency lights in official capacity as an emergency vehicle attempting to put out an active fire. The truck was then hit by a northbound car driven by 17-year-old Annie Raymond of Lawler, who stated that she saw the fire truck at the last second and could not remember if the lights on the fire truck were on, but did not think so.
Further investigation determined the master switch for the fire truck emergency lights was on, indicating emergency lights were activated and Raymond was cited for failure to yield the right of way.
No injuries were reported.
