Texas Firefighter Extricated From Overturned Rig

SAN ANTONIO, Texas --

Responding to a fire call, four San Antonio firefighters find themselves on the other side of a rescue Sunday evening.

The four firefighters with Station 35 were turning onto the Loop 410 access road from Culebra when their truck overturned.

Three of the firefighters were about to get out, but the fourth was trapped.

"He was in the back area, behind the captain's seat, so he was basically sitting on the area that was on the sidewalk," San Antonio fire chief Charles Hood said.

Dozens of firefighters stood by, watching and waiting, while the Station 11 Technical Rescue Team cut into the truck in an effort to free the firefighter.

"This is not like cutting into an Impala. This is like 36,000 pounds of equipment. It took a lot of effort, a very challenging extrication, for us to lift and cut parts of this truck to remove the firefighter," Chief Hood said.

After nearly two hours, rescue workers strapped the firefighter to ropes and pulled him out of the overturned truck.

He was put on a stretcher and taken to University Hospital with a hurt leg and neck. The other three firefighters had cuts and bruises, but not serious injuries.

Chief Hood said they are very lucky to have come out of this OK.

"When they go back to the station, when they say the amount of devastation to this fire truck and realize that nobody was hurt that bad, I think then it might hit them," Chief Hood said.

San Antonio Police will be investigating whether or not speed played a roll in the accident.

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