SUWANEE, Ga. — Crews responding to a wreck on a busy interstate Tuesday had to rescue surprise victims that were trapped.
Gwinnett County fire crews were dispatched around 4:40 p.m. to an accident with an entrapment on I-85 north near Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road.
When they got there, they found a serious situation: a box truck, semi truck and horse trailer had all crashed into each other. To make matters worse, crews said three horses in the trailer appeared to be trapped and at least one was hurt, meanwhile the box truck appeared to be carrying acetylene - an unstable gas - that had the potential for triggering a hazmat incident. Fortunately, a brief inspection showed only the truck was damaged; the tanks carrying acetylene were all OK.
Once they confirmed no hazmat situation was imminent, crews began the task of working to free the horses. Two of them were able to stand on their own and were easily freed from the trailer. The third had to be freed with the help of extrication tools.
Firefighters "did an outstanding job" of cutting open the horse trailer in order to do so. Once freed, the last horse was able to walk, despite its sustained injuries.
Photos: Horses rescued from wreck on I-85 in Gwinnett County
Crews requested a veterinarian to respond to the incident to determine the best course of action for the injured horse, and animal control was contacted to provide a trailer to transport the horses.
Meanwhile, two people were evaluated by paramedic, with one transported to the emergency room, with non-emergency, non life-threatening injuries. The second person declined transport to the hospital.
A hazmat team applied absorbents to help clean up the diesel fuel that leaked onto the highway.
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