Two Farmington firefighters have been released but one remained hospitalized Thursday morning after their fire truck rolled down an embankment during a training exercise the previous night, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
The incident occurred around 9 p.m. Wednesday as the firefighters took turns driving the department's newly-acquired truck along the rugged Fire Break Road in the foothills east of Farmington and Centerville.
The department had recently purchased the six-wheel, 22,000-pound truck from military surplus and planned to outfit it as a water tanker for wildland firefighting and were testing it in similar conditions they would face responding to a wildfire.
"They were very lucky," Centerville Police Lt. Paul Child told the newspaper. "Given the size of this truck and where it went off the road, we could have easily been looking at one or more fatalities."
The truck came out of tight turn on the last run out of a small canyon and went off the road, rolling three or four times, tumbling close to 70 feet down the embankment before coming to a rest on its side.
Two of the firefighters were ejected, although they were reported to have been wearing seat belts.
The military truck was equipped only with lap belts and didn't include shoulder restraints
Crews were able to extricate the trapped firefighters from the wreck about an hour after the crash.
Capt. Jed Done, 39, suffered head injuries and was flown to Intermountain Medical Center, where he remained in serious condition Thursday.
Capt. Rick Wesche, 41, and Paramedic Jay Barnum, 31 were transported to local hospitals by ambulance and had been released by late Thursday morning
Officials are currently investigating the incident and work is underway to recover the fire truck.
