Fire Engine, Pickup Collide

With its lights flashing and sirens blaring, a county fire engine and a fully loaded pickup truck plowed into each other at a San Juan Capistrano intersection Thursday afternoon, leaving a 10-year-old boy and the driver near death, according to authorities.

The crash, which echoed through homes surrounding the intersection of San Juan Creek Road and La Novia Avenue, left four others injured, including a trio of firefighters. The firetruck was headed to a reported structure fire, which proved to be smoke curling from a residential chimney.

Officials with the Orange County Fire Authority and the Sheriff’s Department released few details about the crash Thursday evening.

“It was pretty horrific,” said resident Jarrod Terry, 17, who witnessed the accident’s aftermath. The Dana Hills High School student said he was in his home when he saw the 20-ton pumper truck flash past his window. Moments later there was an explosive crash.

Terry said he ran to the intersection and watched as the firefighters piled out of their vehicle and began peering into the pickup, asking the three occupants how badly they were hurt. “They were trying to see where their injuries were by talking to them through the door because they couldn’t open it,” Terry said.

A spokesman for the county Fire Authority said the firefighters called paramedics, who ripped open the 1973 Ford pickup with hydraulic equipment and removed the passengers. Two of the occupants--the boy and the driver--were rushed into surgery for severe head injuries at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. The third person was listed in critical condition, authorities said.

The three firefighters were taken to Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills for treatment--two for minor bumps and bruises, one with a possible fracture. The crew was identified as Capt. Craig Casey, driver Bruce Bailey, and Jim May.

Late Thursday, investigators said they were still unsure how the crash occurred, but were able to describe the events that led up to it.

The fire engine roared out of Station 7 on Paseo Adelanto at 1:53 p.m., headed to what was thought to be a house fire.

The engine, which can legally cruise at 20 miles over the posted speed limit, was rolling on a “Code-3,” a call that warranted lights and sirens, according to Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department. In such cases, engine drivers are cautioned to slow or come to a halt when they approach a red light, proceeding only when the driver is sure there is no cross traffic.

The firetruck was heading east on La Novia when the collision occurred at the intersection with San Juan Creek Road. The firefighters reported the collision at 1:59 p.m.--just six minutes after they pulled out of the station.

Both the Sheriff’s Department and the fire authority said they did not know which vehicle had the green light and what direction the pickup truck was traveling. However, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Doan described the incident as a broadsided collision. “The left side of the Ford hit the right side of the firetruck,” he said.

Hours after the accident, both vehicles still lay parallel in the street facing east. Both had extensive front-end damage, with the pickup’s windshield shattered. The bed of the truck held two worn mattresses, a rake and a shovel.

Capt. Paul Hunter, a spokesman for the Fire Authority, said it is always perilous for firefighters to guide equipment through traffic.

“People are supposed to yield and give the right of way,” Hunter said. “But that doesn’t happen all the time.”

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Times correspondent Sharon Nagy contributed to this report.

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Collision in Capistrano

A wreck involving a fire engine responding to a call leaves three occupants of a pickup truck in critical condition. One firefighter sustained a possible fracture.