Eight firefighters hurt, two critically, in fire truck rollover crash while returning from California wildfire
(IRVINE, Calif.) — Eight firefighters were hurt — including two critically — when the fire truck they were in rolled over while returning from a 12-hour shift battling the Airport Fire wildfire, one of several large blazes raging in Southern California, officials said.
The truck crashed on State Route 241 in Irvine just before 7 p.m. Thursday, Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy said.
The California Highway Patrol told ABC Los Angeles station KABC that a car in front of the truck swerved to avoid hitting a ladder that was in one of the lanes, causing the fire truck to swerve, lose control and overturn after hitting the guard rail. No other cars were involved in the crash, Fennessy said.
Six firefighters were taken to trauma centers in conditions ranging from “stable to critical,” Fennessy said at a news conference Friday. Two firefighters were treated at Hoag Hospital Irvine and have since been released, he said.
Of the six taken to trauma centers, two were admitted in critical condition and are in the intensive care unit on Friday, Dr. Humberto Sauri told reporters. One is considered “critical but stable” and the other’s condition is “quite critical,” he said.
Four of the eight firefighters “are more seriously injured than the others,” Fennessy said.
Fennessy called the crash “devastating” and a “huge tragedy for our family.”
Firefighters have been battling the Airport Fire “non-stop” since Sept. 9, Fennessy said.
He said this team of firefighters was responsible for removing fuel from the path of fire.
The crash remains under investigation by the highway patrol.
Fennessy said, “What I’ve heard was that the crew carrier, you know, the crew buggy, as we call them, did swerve for whatever reason, and did roll several times.”
“They’re heavy vehicles,” he said. “They’re very top-heavy. So it wouldn’t take much, you know, at speed, you know, for them to roll over.”
(NEW YORK) — Police are investigating multiple separate shootings that occurred Monday night on Interstate 5 in Washington state in what authorities called unacceptable “mayhem.”
Six people were injured in six shooting incidents, including a woman who was critically injured, according to the Washington State Patrol.
A suspect whose vehicle was sought in connection with several of the shootings was arrested in the Tacoma area early Tuesday, police said.
In four of the incidents, the victims reported being shot at by a white Volvo, according to Washington State Patrol spokesperson Chris Loftis. Investigators are still working to determine whether all the shooting incidents involved the same suspect vehicle, according to Capt. Ron Mead, the commander of District 2 of the Washington State Patrol, located in King County.
Police are treating this as a mass shooting event, Loftis said.
“The only difference from this and other events that we see across the country in schools and parks and so forth is the area of the shooting was not confined to a very specific place or location,” Loftis told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday afternoon.
There were two “spasms” of violence along I-5, resulting in the six shooting incidents, Loftis said.
The first occurred over 17 minutes, between 8:26 and 8:43 p.m. local time, northbound on I-5, he said.
It unfolded at I-5 and State Road 18, when “several rounds” were fired from a white Volvo, striking the passenger of a car, Loftis said. The driver took the 320th Street exit and contacted a fire station, and the female passenger was transported to a local hospital, where she remains in critical condition, he said.
A few minutes later, at 8:42 p.m. local time, a victim reported being shot at on I-5 near Martin Luther King Jr. Way and sustained abrasions from broken glass, Loftis said. The victim did not have a description of the suspect vehicle.
One minute later, on I-5 just south of I-90, a victim reported being shot at by an unknown vehicle and sustaining a grazing wound to the leg, Loftis said. The victim was transported to a local hospital as a precaution, he said.
The second wave of gun violence occurred between 10:57 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. local time, southbound on I-5, Loftis said.
On I-5 at State Road 18 at 10:57 p.m., a driver and passenger reported being shot at by a white Volvo, Loftis said. They sustained non-life-threatening wounds to the legs and have since been released from the hospital, Loftis said.
One minute later, another shooting involving a white Volvo was reported on I-5 near South 375 Street, Loftis said. Windows in the car were broken, but no one was injured, he said.
Then, at 11:01 p.m., on I-5 near 54th Avenue, a victim reported being shot by a white Volvo, Loftis said. The victim was shot in the neck and transported to a local hospital, he said.
A suspect was subsequently identified and arrested in the Tacoma area, police said.
Pierce County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the home of the possible suspect late Monday, but his vehicle wasn’t there, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said.
Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, a deputy saw the suspect vehicle pull into an apartment complex, the sheriff’s department said. Backup arrived, and deputies followed the vehicle, which was subsequently disabled by stop sticks set up by a Fircrest police officer, authorities said.
“Once the vehicle ran over the sticks it came to a stop and deputies initiated a felony stop,” the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said in a press release. “The suspect was compliant and taken into custody by a Fircrest officer and WSP trooper.”
The suspect has been booked into King County Jail on first-degree assault, police said.
State police said they are not releasing the name of the suspect at this time or speaking to an alleged motive.
“I’m not going to give that credibility for the mayhem he created,” Mead told reporters.
All of the victims are believed to have been random in what Mead called an “unwarranted, unprovoked attack.”
“Any one of us could have been that unwitting victim,” he said while decrying the gun violence.
Police said there may be additional victims. A person who was traveling on I-5 to Portland Monday night called police Tuesday to report that their car had been shot, Loftis said.
“They heard the news accounts and realized that they may have been involved in this situation,” he said.
No one was injured in that incident. The person is in the process of traveling to Bellevue to speak with detectives to determine if this is a potential seventh victim of the shooting spate, Loftis said.
“We would like to encourage other folks who may have been in this area last night during these timeframes, if you saw something, call,” he said.
At this time, police said they can only connect the shootings in which the victims reported seeing the white Volvo, Mead said.
“While the timing certainly would suggest that all of these are related, we’re only going to be able to connect what we can connect through physical evidence,” he said. “Beyond that is speculative, and that’s why we will do the investigation to make sure that we can tie them to the additional shootings.”
(LOVELOCK, Nev.) — Authorities are investigating the death of a female attendee who died on the first day of the Burning Man Festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
Burning Man’s emergency services personnel found the victim unresponsive around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, according to the Burning Man Project. Deputies responded and confirmed her death, Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said.
“This death will remain under investigation until a Cause and Manner can be determined, which will be updated at the conclusion of an autopsy,” Allen said in a statement.
Her name and age have not been released, pending notification of next of kin.
“Our thoughts and condolences go out to the family and friends affected by this loss,” festival organizers said in a statement. “The safety and well-being of our staff and community are paramount. We are cooperating fully with local authorities as they investigate. … Out of respect for the privacy of the grieving family, we will not be providing further details at this time.”
This year’s Burning Man festival runs from Aug. 25 to Sept. 2. About 80,000 people attend Burning Man each year, according to the festival’s website.
Last year’s festival was marred by torrential rains, with thousands mired in mud and told to stay in place and conserve food until they could safely exit the festival grounds.
(SELMA, Texas) — A man initially interviewed as a witness at the scene of a murder has now been arrested over a year later in the apparent road rage slaying, authorities in Texas announced.
Jacob Daniel Serna, 29, was arrested on Thursday for the murder of Joseph Banales, according to police in Selma, located about 20 miles outside of San Antonio.
The case began on April 15, 2023, when Selma police said they responded to a single-car crash and found Banales shot in the head and slumped over his steering wheel.
Banales, a nursing student and Army ROTC member at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, was declared dead at the scene, police said.
Witnesses said Banales tried to merge into another lane and almost hit a dark blue or black sports car with a loud exhaust system, according to the probable cause affidavit. The sports car slowed down, then spend up along the driver’s side of Banales’ car, witnesses said. Then Banales’ car swerved into another lane and crashed into the center median, and the sports car fled, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Banales was on the phone with his girlfriend at the time; she told police she heard what sounded like a loud exhaust system driving by quickly, then a crash, the document said.
Serna and his wife were at the scene when officers arrived, police said. Officer dashboard camera captured Serna standing over Banales’ body, the probable cause affidavit said.
Serna — who drove a blue Ford Mustang sports car — and his wife were interviewed several times, and their stories changed over time, according to police.
Initially, Serna’s wife told police she saw a blue sports car — similar to the color of their car — in the lane next to Banales, the probable cause affidavit said. Serna told police he didn’t see anything and his wife saw the crash, according to the probable cause affidavit.
This July, police interviewed Serna’s wife again. The Sernas are now separated, according to the probable cause affidavit, and she said her husband had sped up to get a better look at the potential suspect’s car, but the suspect’s car was driving too fast, and that’s when the crash happened, the document said.
On Thursday, police interviewed Serna’s wife again. She admitted her husband shot the victim after her husband “became angry that Banales had nearly changed lanes into his blue Mustang,” police said in a statement on Friday.
She said her husband pulled his pistol out of the glove box, loaded the weapon and fired, according to the probable cause affidavit.
She said she made her husband turn around and drive back to the scene, according to the probable cause affidavit.
During the investigation, police zeroed-in on cellphone records to help determine “who could have been driving a blue sports car at the crime scene,” police said in a statement.
The probe, which included searching license plate reader databases, “revealed only one vehicle matching the description of a blue sports car with loud exhaust” — Serna’s car, police said.
“Google Geo-Fence records show Serna’s Google activity pinging in the area at the same time investigators believe the shooting happened,” police added.
Serna has been booked into the Bexar County Jail, police said.