Borrowed OWL fire truck goes up in flames

A Woodbridge volunteer fire department may benefit from a blaze that engulfed their ladder truck Thursday on Prince William Parkway.

Two firefighters from Manassas fire and rescue came to Woodbridge to borrow the truck from the Occoquan-Woodbridge-Lorton Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department after the city’s only ladder truck was placed out of service because of mechanical problems.

The borrowed truck caught fire when one of the firefighters was driving it to Manassas just after 7 p.m.

With smoke billowing from the cab of the truck, the driver pulled to the side of the road and jumped out.

No one was hurt, but the 17-year-old truck, valued at $375,000, was expected to be a total loss, OWL spokesman Jim McAllister said on Thursday.

On Friday, McAllister said the truck was insured for its original value of $915,000.

“If the insurance company’s decision is to reimburse the department, then the money will go to replace other fire apparatus according to the department’s replacement schedule,” said McAllister.

The department is currently outfitting a brand new, $900,000 ladder truck, which should be ready for use in the coming weeks. The ladder truck that caught fire was in the process of being retired, McAllister said.

Since the department does not need a new ladder truck, a portion of any insurance reimbursement would go to pay for the financing of a new fan truck.

The truck would be used at building fires to quickly ventilate heavy smoke after a fire has been put out. That truck is currently in the process of being purchased and assembled, McAllister said.
The department garners its funds from both the county and from monies raised by volunteers.

The burning fire truck took many by surprise and closed Prince William Parkway for more than an hour as crews worked to not only extinguish the fire but clean up both diesel fuel and motor oil that leaked from the damaged vehicle.

Lt. Danny Dutch with Dale City Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department was one of the first on the scene and helped extinguish the blaze.

“The call came out as a car fire,” he said. “We never expected to see something like this. We just couldn’t believe it.”

McAllister said the truck had just recently come out of the maintenance shop before being lent out. One Manassas firefighter drove, following another firefighter in an SUV.

The truck driver noticed the smell of smoke inside the cab while passing Hoadly Road and called his colleague in the SUV to inform him, said McAllister.

“The driver didn’t think much of the smoke because it could have been coming from anywhere,” he said.

But then the truck driver saw heavy, black smoke fill the cab and called for the driver of the SUV to come back to his location. The driver pulled the truck over about a half mile from Hoadly Road, where the SUV had already stopped and was waiting for him.

One witness said flames nearly 10 feet high engulfed the truck. The fire appeared to have started in the crew cab area, though the official cause of the fire is still unknown.

Manassas fire and rescue spokesman Francis J. Teevan said that city’s ladder truck had recently been plagued by mechanical problems. In a June press release, Teevan said the 16-year-old truck was out of service for more than 100 days last year.

At the same time the department issued a public plea asking Manassas residents to write the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to obtain a $915,000 grant for the purchase of a new ladder truck.
Teevan’s plea stated it could cost as much as $1 million to replace the city’s ladder truck.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.