Oct 25, 2009 1:47 pm US/Eastern
Firefighter Pinned For Hours After Truck Collision
Thunderous Crash Between Two Fire Trucks Leaves 13 Firefighters Injured
BROOKLYN (CBS) ―
A firefighter was pinned for hours after two fire trucks collided on rain-slicked streets in Brooklyn.
It took rescue personnel hours to extricate the final firefighter from the wreck of the thunderous collision in East New York.
The mangled rig – Ladder 107 – toppled on its side from the force of the crash, making access to the pinned firefighter difficult.
"They were attaching the equipment so they could pull the roof of the fire engine back, getting better leverage at removing him from the vehicle," East New York resident Belinda Farmer said. "It was quite a tremendous ordeal. At one point he was screaming, 'My leg, my leg,' as they were trying to pull him out of the vehicle."
Several firefighters were injured in the crash that left the other rig, Engine 232, impaled on a metal fence.
Officials say the two rigs were rushing to a gas emergency on the wet intersection of Ashford Avenue and Hedgeman Street when they collided. The engine clipped the back of the ladder truck and sent it careening into a tree down the street.
"There was a great deal of smoke," Farmer said. "Once the smoke cleared, you saw exactly what happened – that it had flipped over on top of the other vehicle and was on its side."
As hundreds of rescue personnel rushed to the scene, the priority quickly became pulling the trapped firefighters out of the wreckage.
"The one that they just got out, everybody is going to make it, no fatalities," city councilman Charles Barron said. "Thank God everybody is alright."
As the last firefighter was rushed to a waiting ambulance, he gave a thumbs up to the hundreds of onlookers who stood by, applauding the rescue.
In all, 13 firefighters were injured, most of them minor.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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