An Elora, Ont., firefighter suffered serious injuries but is listed in stable condition after a fire truck flipped onto its side and into a ditch on Tuesday morning.
The single-vehicle crash happened on Side Road 10 near Wellington Road 7 in Wellington County as crews were responding to an alarm at around 9:30 a.m.
Shortly after the crash, Township of Centre Wellington fire chief Tom Mulvey told Global News that one firefighter was trapped inside that truck and had to be airlifted by ORNGE.
“That firefighter has been airlifted to Hamilton General Hospital with non-life-threatening conditions with some injuries to his legs and some cuts to the face,” Mulvey said.
Wellington County OPP closed the road and the Ministry of Labour has been called to investigate how the truck left the road.
“It’s a rural road and there was hard-packed snow on the road but the OPP and Ministry of Labour will be looking into all of that,” Mulvey said.
The chief added he was there as firefighters extricated their colleague from the truck. Mulvey said the injured member was alert and communicating.
“We are trained very well in auto extrication. We’ve gotten people out of vehicles before but it’s very rare when you are getting one of your own out,” Mulvey said.
“They did a fantastic job with the extrication. It was fairly complicated because the fire truck was up against a tree.”
A critical incident stress team will be meeting with the firefighters involved in the collision.
Mulvey added that the fire truck could be written off, but they won’t know the extent of the damage until investigators clear the scene.