CUMMING, Ga. — Heavy storms hit North Georgia on Friday morning, and Forsyth County was not spared. Jason Shivers, division chief for the Forsyth County Fire Department, says the weather caused a multitude of problems across the area.
“One of those lightning strikes in Western Forsyth County hit a house and caused a house fire. Fortunately, that family was able to get out,” Shivers said. “Some of the roof system and ceiling system collapsed and pancaked in on one of our teams on the inside, trapping one firefighter.”
He said one of the engine companies headed to the scene to lend a helping hand, but the team of three fighters wrecked their truck on the way.
“It rolled over and landed on its roof,” Shivers said. “It's worth noting that they were in very tough conditions. I think it's safe to probably assume there were certainly some contributing factors from the weather. Very high winds, heavy rain, and the fact that they were responding to an entrapped firefighter.”
Shivers says there were no other vehicles involved, and the firefighter’s injuries were minor. The truck which weighs roughly 24 tons was less than two years old and cost around $675,000.
“It's being looked at this week by an insurance adjuster and the manufacturer,” Shivers said. “Both need to look at it to make some determinations as to what the best course of action is next, whether it's repairable or whether it's a total replacement.”
A full investigation is now underway to determine what happened.
“The apparatus itself has a number of systems on board to provide us feedback as to what happened during the incident, real time in microseconds,” Shivers said. “So we can claim that data and use it to determine what occurred, what the speeds were, exactly what happened.”
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