Firefighter was hurrying to house fire when water shifted, pulling truck off road
By Sherry Youngquist
JOURNAL REPORTER
Friday, July 9, 2004
ARARAT, NC — A firefighter with the Ararat Volunteer Fire Department overturned a $210,000 pumper-tanker carrying 8,000 pounds of water yesterday as he rushed to a house fire in the community southeast of Mount Airy.The truck, and equipment that was strewn across the road, blocked other trucks from the department that followed. Two backup fire stations – Pilot Knob and Bannertown – had to respond and take an alternate route to reach the unoccupied home. The fire started about noon.The driver, Randy Scott Goins, was coming out of a curve on Ararat Road and going into another when the pumper-tanker’s water shifted, pulling the truck off the road about three miles away from the house fire. The truck, which hit a tree before overturning, weighs about 24,000 pounds and when filled with 1,000 gallons of water tops 32,000 pounds.”We think he came into the curve too fast,” said Trooper Brian Jones of the N.C. Highway Patrol. “He had just got loaded up with water. It’ll make a difference, but you just have to be aware of it.”Goins, 37, suffered minor injuries and was taken by private vehicle to Northern Hospital of Surry County. No one else was in the pumper-tanker.The fire destroyed the single-story home at 377 Towe Road and is under investigation. When firefighters arrived, they discovered that a door to the home had been forced open, said D.C. Collins of the Pilot Knob Volunteer Fire Department. It was not known yesterday which room the fire started in.As firefighters from Pilot Knob and Bannertown worked to put out the fire, a number of Ararat firefighters remained at the wrecked pumper-tanker helping to clean up.”It’s going to take a few days to sort everything out,” said Kevin Key, the assistant chief.The pumper-tanker is considered a total loss, he said. The 1997 model is one of two pumper-tankers that the department owns. The other, a 2001 model, was not used yesterday.Firefighters said they were relieved that no one was hurt.Though Goins was able to walk away from the partially caved-in cab of the truck yesterday, he was shaken by the wreck and so were others in his department.”He’s an experienced firefighter, and he’s been with the department 15 years probably,” Key said. “We’re glad he wasn’t hurt.”