Five Injured in Apparatus Crash
Five persons, including four members of the Waterbury, Conn., Fire Department, were injured on November 2, in a collision between an automobile and a hook and ladder truck responding to a false alarm.
Fire Chief Francis Scully said that when firemen under his command reached the scene, a warehouse which once had been a city school, they could find no sign of a fire. Chief Scully quoted persons working in the building as saying they knew of no fire, nor did they know who had summoned the Fire Department.
The building had been the focus of political controversy in the November city election campaign, with the Democrats accusing the Republican administration of extravagance in remodeling the old school building.
The accident, a grinding, ripping one, occurred at the intersection of Washington and Baldwin Streets in a hilly section of Waterbury, and the scene of at least two other accidents involving fire apparatus and automobiles
Taken to St. Mary’s Hospital after the crash were Battalion Chief James O’Donnell, skull injury; Privates Edward D. Courtney, chest and arm injuries; Thomas Conway, leg and knee injuries; James Gilland, multiple injuries, and Robert B. Bertoletti, multiple injuries. Bertoletti was identified by police as driver of the automobile.
The automobile was demolished by the force of the collision. The hook and ladder truck, its front end badly damaged, sideswiped three parked automobiles after the collision and then became jammed between the iron fence, in front of Washington School, and a public utility pole.
A few years ago Chief Scully was forced to guide his car into the iron fence to avoid a collision at the same traffic light. About 12 years ago, five Waterbury firemen were injured, one fatally, in another collision in the same
vicinity.
Courtesy Watertbury Republican & American
