By Mona Darwish
The Orange County Register
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — More than $265,000 has been raised so far for the firefighters injured when their truck overturned on an Orange County toll road last week, with contributions from Southern California hotshot crews, firefighter and police unions and others.
The crash occurred on the evening of Sept. 19, north of the Portola Parkway exit on the northbound 241 Toll Road. Eight members of the Orange County Fire Authority’s Santiago hand crew were headed back to their command post in a transport truck, following a 12-hour shift battling the over-23,000-acre Airport fire in the Cleveland National Forest area.
For reasons under investigation, the driver lost control and struck a metal guard rail, causing the truck to overturn and roll over several times before it landed on its side. Six of the eight injured crew members, who ranged between the ages of 24 to 34, suffered serious injuries.
As of Tuesday, Sep. 24, four critically injured members remained hospitalized, officials said. They were expected to remain in the hospital for “quite a while,” OCFA Fire Chief Brian Fennessy said in a news conference last week.
A relief fund for the eight affected firefighters and their families was set up by the OCFA and its union, with a fundraising goal of $500,000. The money raised will help with medical costs not covered by insurance, caregiver fees and other supplemental expenses they will incur “on the long road to recovery,” said Orange County Professional Firefighters Association, Local 3631 President Chris Hamm.
“We drive the same kind of buggy, we do the same work they do… I’m sure they would have done the same for us,” said Patrick Fearon, a foreman at Los Angeles County’s Fire Camp 8 in Malibu. Fearon and close to 30 other hand-crew members made a group contribution of $2,000, with each individual pitching in what they could.
Over $265,000 total had been raised as of Tuesday, with roughly $236,000 in donations from a GoFundMe and a little over $30,000 through PayPal. Donors included hotshot crews and firefighter unions based in Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire, and even as far as Sacramento and Vacaville. So far, the single largest donation came from the San Bernardino County Professional Firefighters Local 935, which gave $15,000.
“It’s a tragic incident. Anything we can do to help our brothers and sisters in Orange County, we always will,” IAFF Local 935 President Jim Gregoli said.
Some local police unions also showed support, including the police associations of Garden Grove, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach. Garden Grove Police Association President Brian Stroud described the relationship between police and firefighters as a special brotherhood, with a long history of both agencies being there for each other. When he was injured in the line of duty, OCFA was there for him.
“We’ve been there to help them and they’ve been there for us. If one of them goes down, we feel the pain as well,” Stroud said.
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