The firefighter behind the wheel of the spinning quint that skidded on the icy street never in his wildest dreams thought his first wreck would be viewed around the world.
But, that's just what happened to Rock Community Firefighter Kevin Steinmeyer.
“I certainly didn’t want my first accident to happen like that,” he told a FirstAlert4 reporter.
“I was checking the breaks every so often because I knew the road started into a hill. So, I put down my chains and corrected what I could. Then all of a sudden, I checked again and then after that, the truck let loose and started sliding.”
“Most of it was just holding on for dear life. Once it started spinning, there wasn’t much I could do. Once we hit the car, I could steer a little more, but a lot of that was just luck of where we were going.”
Steinmeyer was worried he would hurt his crew or civilians.
“Hitting the car slowed us down and I was able to turn the wheel away from the house. And, we ended up coming to a stop with the front passenger wheel just touching the home’s foundation."
“A lot of it was we got very, very lucky.”