HOUSTON --
A crash involving two Houston Fire Department trucks resulted in more than $1.2 million in property damage, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.
Eleven people, including nine firefighters, were injured in the collision at the intersection of Dunlavy Street and Westheimer Road on Monday at 10:45 a.m..
A Houston Fire Department pumper truck traveling northbound on Dunlavy Street broadsided a ladder truck traveling west on Westheimer Road. The ladder truck rolled, hit a woman on a bicycle, snapped a utility pole and landed on top of a car.
"It was pretty clear here looking at it -- where the line of debarkation was . It was right on the left side," said Dist. Chief Tommy Dowdy with the Houston Fire Department. "Engine 7 has major damage to the frame, the engine components, the transmission, the pump. There's not a whole lot of things on it that are not damaged."
Firefighters said the pumper truck was totaled and said they suspect the same is true of the ladder truck.
Both rigs are not cheap.
"Ladder trucks are $820,000. The pumper's $430,000," Dowdy said.
City of Houston taxpayers will foot the bill.
The city has insurance, but only for disasters.
"They're self-insured with a $20 million deductible," Dowdy said.
But Dowdy said after seeing the damage, it's amazing that everyone survived.
"We are very fortunate that, all of us talked all day, that we're not going to funerals right now. We're very happy about that. Because this could have been a much worse situation for us -- going to firefighter funerals," he said.
The pumper driver, Brian Edwards, and Capt. Michael Mayfield are still hospitalized, recovering from bone fractures.
Cyclist Leigh Boone, 29, was hit by the ladder truck. She remains in critical condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital.
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