Fire Engine Crashes While Responding to Structure Fire

A Lawrence Township fire engine, on its way to a structure fire, was involved in a collision with a car at the intersection of Brunswick Pike (Route 1) and Bakers Basin Road Sunday evening (April 8).

No injuries were reported in the crash, but both vehicles sustained damage.

Lawrence Township police Sgt. Chris Longo said the circumstances of the collision remain under investigation, and any witnesses are asked to call Officer Marc Caponi at (609) 896-1111.

It was 6:24 p.m. Sunday when a resident of the Lawrence Square Village apartment complex called police to report seeing smoke and flames coming from one of the apartment buildings on Poillon Court, Longo said.

Lawrence Township’s three volunteer fire companies – Lawrenceville, Slackwood and Lawrence Road – and Mercerville Fire Co. from Hamilton Township, along with township police officers and emergency medical personnel, were dispatched to the apartment complex off Quakerbridge Road.

Longo said the blaze started in a mulch bed on the exterior of the building, likely from a carelessly discarded cigarette, and flames quickly spread to the vinyl siding of a first-floor breezeway.

As it happened, bystanders using portable fire extinguishers managed to put out most of the fire prior to the arrival of the first emergency responders, Longo said. He said a 4-foot by 6-foot area of the building’s siding was damaged by the blaze.

A crew of Slackwood firefighters was on its way to the blaze when they were involved in the collision, Longo said, noting that the crash was reported at 6:36 p.m.

He said the fire engine, driven by Slackwood volunteer firefighter Kenneth Johnson, 59, was heading north on Brunswick Pike when it collided with the 2001 Ford Mustang operated by Shadi Taha, 21, of Sayen Drive, Hamilton Township. Taha was driving west, attempting to cross Route 1 by going from Bakers Basin Road to Franklin Corner Road, he said.

He said the fire engine had all its warning lights and siren on at the time.

The Slackwood firefighters were actually operating a fire engine from Lawrence Road Fire Co. Slackwood firefighters borrowed Lawrence Road’s Engine 22 after their own Engine 21 broke down over their weekend. Slackwood’s other fire engine, Rescue 21, is still out of service .

Sunday evening’s collision caused significant damage to the rear driver’s side of Taha’s Mustang and to the front bumper of Engine 22, damaging the fire engine’s siren and air horns, Longo said.

Neither driver was injured, nor were either of the other two firefighters riding aboard the fire engine, he said.

The Mustang had to be towed from the scene, while the fire engine was driven back the Slackwood firehouse. Fire officials said the fire engine will remain out of service until the entire apparatus is checked out by township mechanics, repaired and cleared for fire duty.

The intersection where the accident occurred is equipped with a camera system that documents red light violations with both still photos and video footage. As part of its investigation, the police department was working to obtain any footage of the collision that was captured by the camera system.