Atmore firefighters respond to predawn Friday fire, collision
By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Atmore Fire Department (AFD) personnel didn’t get a lot of sleep last Friday (October 11), at least not during the predawn hours. From a few minutes before 4 a.m. until the sun started to appear on the horizon, AFD crews helped fight a Florida house fire and pulled two wreck victims from their overturned vehicle.
Local firefighters were first called to assist with a structure fire just across the state line.
An AFD tanker was part of a seven-agency response to the fire, which destroyed a Hodges Road home near Davisville and sent two people to a Pensacola hospital, at 3:56 a.m. The unit and its crew arrived at 4:06 and helped fight the blaze until the all-clear was given at 5:15.
“We fed them water from the tanker and did what we could,” AFD Chief Ronald Peebles said. “The house was a total loss.”
Atmore firefighters joined fire-suppression crews from the Walnut Hill, McDavid, Century and Molino stations of Escambia County (Fla.) Fire-Rescue, along with those from Flomaton Fire Department and Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department in the battle to save the home. Escambia County (Ala.) Sheriff’s Office deputies also took part in the operation.
The injured occupants were taken by Escambia County (Fla.) EMS to a Pensacola hospital. Their conditions were not known by Tuesday’s press deadline.
Peebles said he has been told that the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office has launched an investigation into the blaze.
No injuries
Firefighters had hardly cleared the fire scene when their help was needed at the site of a two-vehicle crash near U.S. 31’s mile-marker 39, about two miles west of Atmore.
Alabama State Trooper reports indicate the wreck occurred around 5:10 a.m., when the driver of a 1999 Lincoln Navigator struck a 2023 GMC Acadia in which an elderly couple were traveling.
The collision sent the Lincoln off the roadway, where it struck a tree. The GMC also left the roadway and struck a tree, then overturned and came to a rest on its side at the bottom of a tree- and bush-filled ravine.
Peebles said local firefighters spent nearly an hour at the wreck site. They had to perform an extrication, he said, but didn’t have to use Jaws of Life or any other extrication tools.
“We had to extricate the two elderly people in the SUV,” said the fire chief, who pulled both victims from the wreckage. “We didn’t have to cut into the car, but it was on its side, down in that ditch, so we had to pull them out. The other driver got out on her own.”
Surprisingly, troopers reported that none of the three people involved in the crash suffered serious injury. Reports indicate that all three were taken by ambulance to Atmore Community Hospital, where they were reportedly treated and released.
The names of the victims were not released. Alabama Law Enforcement Agency protocols now include withholding from press releases the names of victims in non-fatal crashes.
While a state trooper continued his probe into the crash, sleepy firefighters — who left the collision site at 6:05 a.m. — returned to headquarters to catch 40 winks while awaiting the 7 a.m. shift change.