Married Texas Firefighters Injured in Fire Truck Wreck

Two married members of a volunteer fire department were badly injured Wednesday afternoon in the wreck of a new fire truck near Santo in southern Palo Pinto County, officials said.

Patrick and Kimberly Anne Dorris, both 43, of Santo, were taken by helicopter ambulance from the wreck on Farm Road 129 to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, said Trooper Gary Rozzell, of the Texas Department of Public Safety office in Mineral Wells.

Their conditions could not be learned Wednesday evening.

The Dorrises were among the newest members of the Brazos Volunteer Fire Department, but they were already veterans of the extensive Possum Kingdom Complex grassfires last year, Fire Chief Richard Nickols said.

The single-vehicle wreck was reported at 1:23 p.m. on the farm road about two miles west of U.S. 281, Rozzell said.

Kimberly Dorris was driving the 2012 Freightliner fire truck to Mineral Wells to get new decals, Nickols said. The truck was carrying a full load of 3,500 gallons of water, he said.

The truck was eastbound when it came to a curve and drifted right. The right-side tires left the road, and she attempted to correct that, but the truck hit a concrete structure, Rozzell said. As the truck went across the roadway, the weight of the water in the tank shifted, causing the truck to overturn.

It landed on the passenger side, stopped when it struck a tree and a fence, Rozzell said.

Copyright 2012 - Fort Worth Star-Telegram

McClatchy-Tribune News Service