The North-End Volunteer Fire Department temporarily sidelined following a single-vehicle crash Monday that left one firefighter injured.
White County Emergency Management Director Matt McBride said the department will remain out of service for approximately one to two days to allow personnel time to regroup. McBride said the city fire department and other county agencies will provide coverage for the North-End area while the department is inactive.
“There’s two things that a fire chief never wants to have to deal with, and that’s an apparatus crash and that’s losing a firefighter in a fire,” McBride said. “So I just ask that you keep McCulley family in your prayers. If you know them, please reach out to them.”
McBride said the Tennessee Highway Patrol is investigating the crash, which involved only the fire engine and no other bystanders.
The crash resulted in the loss of one of the department’s two primary fire engines. McBride said the department also maintains a tanker, a brush unit, and a crash rescue truck, but much of the equipment must now undergo mandatory safety testing.
“They just put sixty-five thousand dollars’ worth of grand tools on this truck,” McBride said. “So they’re going to move some equipment around, but once we go through this, OSHA and NFPA says all that equipment has to be tested to a certain standard.”
McBride said he plans to coordinate with testing companies Tuesday to evaluate the equipment before it can return to service. The department still has a secondary unit available once the temporary stand-down period concludes.