Authorities are trying to determine what caused a West Virginia volunteer fire department’s truck to flip and hit a rock wall while responding to an accident. Five people died in the separate accidents.
Kanawha County Manager Jennifer Herrald said two firefighters from Pratt were killed and three others on the truck were injured Saturday night southeast of Charleston.
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The firefighters were on their way to an accident on Interstate 64-77, also known as the West Virginia Turnpike, when their truck flipped, Herrald said.
The wrong-way accident the firefighters were responding to on the interstate involved three fatalities, state police spokesman Capt. Reggie Patterson said.
The injured firefighters were transported to Charleston Area Medical Center’s General Hospital for treatment. Herrald said in an email Sunday the names of the surviving firefighters and their conditions, along with the names of those killed, have not been released.
Kanawha County Commission president Kent Carper said in a statement it’s believed to be the worst accident involving a volunteer fire service in the county.
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According to the U.S. Fire Administration, an entity of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, more than 95 per cent of West Virginia fire departments are all or mostly volunteer.
“It’s always hard when there’s a fatality. But when it’s someone you know and work with and see on a daily basis, it’s extremely difficult,” Shane Hudnall, a West Virginia Division of Highways safety officer, told WOWK-TV.
It marked the end of an especially deadly week for firefighters nationwide.
In York, Pennsylvania, two firefighters were killed and two were injured when a former piano factory collapsed Thursday.
And a New York City firefighter died Friday after battling a fire at a movie set in Harlem.