By Shira Moolten, Angie DiMichele
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — After days of city officials clashing over transparency, Delray Beach released several new details Thursday evening about the Dec. 28 crash between a fire rescue ladder truck and a Brightline train.
The firefighters involved in the crash were driving to a building fire at 365 SE Sixth Ave. at 10:44 a.m., Gina Carter, a city spokesperson, said in a news release.
Preliminary information, including video footage and witness accounts, indicates that the fire rescue truck “crossed the tracks while the crossing gates were down after a freight train cleared the intersection,” Carter said.
Whether the crew was responding to an emergency is one of several questions that has repeatedly gone unanswered until Thursday evening. Carter also released the dispatch audio and 911 calls and identified the third firefighter who was on the truck when it crashed as Joseph Fiumara III.
Driver Engineer David Michael Wyatt was driving the truck while Capt. Brian Fiorey was also on board. Wyatt and Fiorey have been placed on administrative leave since, in addition to two senior staff members, Assistant Chief Kevin Green and Division Chief Todd Lynch. Fiumara III has not been placed on leave.
As of Thursday, Delray Beach Police has asked the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to be the lead investigating agency, Carter said.
“Our Delray Beach investigators are highly skilled and were conducting a comprehensive examination of this incident. However, given the complexity of the crash, the multiple agencies involved, and the need for transparency, I requested the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office assume the lead investigative responsibility,” Delray Beach Police Chief Russ Mager said in the prepared statement.
“This decision ensures the most thorough and impartial review possible, leveraging PBSO’s expertise in major transportation incidents while eliminating any perception of internal influence. Our commitment is to uncover the full scope of what occurred — fact by fact — so that we can provide the community with clear, accurate answers and uphold the highest standards of investigative integrity,” Russ said.
The city in recent days has continued to face pressure from the public and elected officials over the lack of information it has released in the nearly two weeks since the crash.
The new information came to light one day after Mayor Tom Carney emailed City Manager Terrence Moore, commissioners and Fire Chief Ronald Martin, imploring the fire department to release more information than it had. And one day before that, Vice Mayor Juli Casale questioned Moore at Tuesday night’s commission meeting about possible issues the department has had in the past with firefighters driving city-owned vehicles without valid driver’s licenses.
Wyatt’s driving history
More details have also come to light about Wyatt’s history.
Wyatt, hired in 2002 as an Ocean Rescue officer, had his driver’s license suspended in June of 2023 after a traffic citation over careless driving in downtown Delray Beach, court records show.
A little after 12 p.m. , Wyatt, 46, had driven off the road, onto the median, and struck a tree and signs at the intersection of West Atlantic Avenue and North Swinton Avenue, doing approximately $26,000 in damage, according to the traffic citation. No injuries were reported.
Wyatt received a $166 ticket and pleaded guilty, electing to do driving school.
His driver’s license was then suspended in October of that year after he failed to complete driving school, according to court records. The suspension was cleared in December.
At least 10 other fire department employees are believed to have had suspended licenses while working for the city of Delray Beach, but the city has not released records pertaining to those employees or said if they were actively driving with suspended licenses.
Casale told the Sun Sentinel on Thursday that a lack of city oversight of the fire department is to blame for the current problems.
“I don’t think it’s too much to expect our firefighters to have a valid driver’s license,” she said. “Unfortunately, our former commission’s decision to strip the city of its oversight of the fire department’s union personnel policies made way for this unprecedented lack of accountability. I’m hopeful the new fire chief will get things under control.”
Apartment fire
The fire in an apartment at a four-story residential building that firefighters were called to happened just after 10:30 a.m., according to dispatch notes and audio the city also released Thursday evening.
The call originally came from a fire alarm company, and a resident also reported smoke coming from the second floor of the building, according to the dispatch audio.
Dispatchers early on in the call noted that responding firefighters were delayed by a train. About a minute later, one man said over radio that “ladder 111” was delayed by a train while a second man said “truck 115” was delayed by a train. Again seconds later, another man said “rescue 115” was delayed by a train.
After the multiple reports of the train delays, a first responder at the apartment building said over radio that there was burned food in a second-floor apartment and a slight hazy smoke on the second floor.
“No hazards. We’re just gonna need to ventilate,” the man said.
And shortly after that, a dispatcher said over radio, “… Be advised – we have an accident. It’s gonna be truck 111, was struck by the train on Southeast First Street. Truck 111 struck by the train.”
Witnesses in the area who watched the Brightline smash into the fire rescue truck as well as passengers on the train called 911 that morning, totaling more than a dozen calls.
“What did you guys hit?” one dispatcher asked a woman who called 911.
“We hit a fire truck!” someone said in the background.
At the start of another call, the dispatcher asked, “Is this about the Brightline accident?”
“The f—– Brightline!” another man shouted.
“We’re on the way,” the dispatcher said. He instructed the caller to try to evacuate passengers.
Multiple calls were made after an iPhone or Apple Watch’s crash detection technology automatically called 911.
“We were in a, I don’t even know, a, a train crash,” one Brightline passenger told a dispatcher.
Dispatchers got so many reports about the crash that the majority of calls were brief, with dispatchers not asking for further information from witnesses.
“A Brightline just hit a –” one woman who called said. The dispatcher interrupted with, “fire truck?”
“It’s a fire truck. It’s a fire truck. We got it already. Thank you,” the dispatcher said.
A total of nine Brightline passengers had minor injuries and were taken to hospitals, Carter said Thursday night. Wyatt, Fiorey and Fiumara III were all taken to Delray Medical Center as trauma alerts.
The fire department said on social media that they have since been released from the hospital.
©2025 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Visit sun-sentinel.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
