A Colorado fire department's new apparatus fell into a sinkhole during a call early Sunday.
The incident happened at around 4 a.m., and it involved the newest addition to Colorado Springs Fire Department's fleet, KKTV-TV reports. The vehicle, which had only gone into service Jan. 21, was responding to a call concerning a structure fire and ended up parking in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
Instead of encountering a structure fire, crews discovered a water main break. And that break began creating a sinkhole directly beneath the apparatus' parking spot.
“They parked in front of the house, then the street began to sink underneath the front of the engine. … All four of the guys were in the engine when it began to sink," Colorado Springs Fire Lt. Brian Ebmeyer told KKTV. "As soon as they recognized it was going to sink, all of them got out quickly, not knowing what they end result was going to be, if it was going to stop right there.”
CSFD Close Call While parked in front of a reported structure fire at 4am, the Engine 10 crew suddenly felt the engine...
Posted by Colorado Springs Fire Department on Sunday, February 7, 2021
"There was no structure fire. It was just the investigation of a loud noise in the basement," Ebmeyer told KKTV. "Unknown noise in the basement that turned out to be what we think was related to the water main break.”
Once the apparatus dropped into the sinkhole, two wreckers were needed to hoist the 21-ton vehicle out of the hole. No one was injured in the incident.
“There was a little bit of damage to the front bumper of Engine 10, but other than that—after we thoroughly checked it out—there was no other damage to Engine 10," Ebmeyer told KKTV.
