FIREWIRE Magazine Winter 2019: Celebrating 5 Years | Page 54

I NCIDENT R EPORT
Originally published in Spring 2017
Cajon Pass – Freeway Collapse & Fire Engine Extraction
By Jason Pitsor
Photos by: Troy Case
Editor’s Note: The following is Captain Jason Pitsor’s account of his crew’s involvement this winter in an incident where a County Fire engine
fell through a lane of freeway which had suddenly disappeared—washed away by rushing floodwaters that caused a massive erosion of the
underlying embankment. Driven largely by footage captured by a local TV news crew which had been documenting theirs and other crews’
work during the day, the incident garnered local and national media attention. While the engine itself, which had responded from Station
2 to incidents in the Cajon Pass for over a decade, was a total loss, the crew came away physically unharmed—remarkably, and barely.
During the heavy rainstorms
crew aboard Medic Engine 2 from County Fire’s
of February 17 , our
Devore station spent most of the afternoon in
the Old Cajon Valley, assisting motorists who had
become stranded in the flood waters or who needed
help getting turned around and out of harm’s way.
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FIREWIRE • Five Year Anniversary