TOWN OF NEWARK, Wis. --
Two firefighters were injured after an Orfordville Fire Department water truck rushing to a blaze overturned in the Town of Newark on Monday afternoon and they became pinned inside.
Firefighters were responding to a report of a shed on fire.
The incident occurred in the 8000 block of West Saint Lawrence Road, near the intersection of County Highway H and Mill Pond Road, west of Beloit. The vehicle hit a tree. Rock County authorities said that the driver of the truck apparently took a curve too fast.
One of the victims, Chad Cleasby, 31, was able to free himself from the cab when authorities arrived. The operator Michael Ponkauskas, 54, was trapped for more than a half-hour, WISC-TV reported. He was trapped until extraction equipment arrived.
Cleasby was taken by MedFlight to Rockford Memorial Hospital while Ponkauskas was rushed to a Beloit Memorial Hospital. Both firefighters suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The Rock County Sheriffs Office is investigating the crash.
Copyright 2008 by Channel 3000. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
