| On Tuesday February 7 at about 3:45am, the fire company was dispatched to the area of the station for an auto accident. The initial report was one vehicle had overturned. While members were making their way to the station, the Chester County Fireboard provided supplemental information that a trash truck had overturned and that the driver was out of the vehicle.
MICU 25 and Rescue 25 (LeBare) arrived to find a tractor trailer carrying municipal waste resting on its side in the southbound lanes of Route 1 just prior to the fire house. A portion of the truck's load had been dumped onto the Longwood Gardens property as well as onto Route 1. The Rescue crew quickly went to work controlling the diesel fuel and oil that was leaking from the tractor. Lt. LeBare established "Route 1 Command" and requested assistance from PennDOT to clean up the trash. Engine 25-2 and Traffic 25 responded to the north side of the scene to detour traffic around the scene.
Crews spend the next 6 hours blocking the scene from traffic while PennDOT used a front end loader and dumptrucks to clean up the spilled trash. Blittersdorf Towing of Kennett Square responded and used a smaller front end loader to unload a portion of the load from the trailer so that the truck could be uprighted. Eventually, an empty tractor trailer from the hauling company arrived and was used to move the rest of the trash from the highway. It took 3 "Super Slider" tow trucks from Blittersdorf Towing to upright the truck. The Longwood crews were available just before 10am. |
