Feb. 19--The Ashby mother and son killed in a weekend head-on crash in Fitchburg that also left a fellow firefighter injured were part of a family of firefighters who served the tight-knit Massachusetts town for decades, according to grieving fire officials.
"It's pretty tough to prepare for something like this," said Ashby Fire Chief Bill Seymour Jr., whose department draped the town's station in black blunting yesterday as it mourned Michelle Martens, 36, an on-call firefighter and EMT, and her 16-year-old son, Justin Fournier, who recently joined the town's auxiliary department.
Together, they marked the third and fourth generations to serve Ashby, following Martens' grandfather, Thomas Hansen, and father, Walter Hansen, who both served as assistant chiefs. "A family thing in a small town," Seymour said.
Martens and Fournier were killed Sunday when their compact SUV collided with a pickup truck driven by Wayne F. Patenaude on Ashby Street in Fitchburg, just a few hundred yards from the town line. Patenaude, a 15-year firefighter in town, was still recuperating at UMass Medical Center with a variety of head, arm and leg injuries, including a crushed heel, Seymour said.
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