DURANT, Iowa — A group of Durant, Iowa, firefighters were injured in a crash with a farm vehicle on Monday evening, May 2. One firefighter was hospitalized with severe injuries.
The story of the incident was compiled from posts made by the Durant Fire and Wilton Fire and Police departments as well as a later news release from the Muscatine County Sheriff's Office.
According to the posts, Durant firefighters were responding to a fire call in the evening on Monday when they were involved in a crash with and - according to Wilton police and fire - caused by a commercial farm field sprayer.
A photo shared by both Wilton agencies shows the Durant fire rig mangled and severely damaged.
An officer from Durant arrived on the scene within minutes and noted that the farm vehicle had left the scene.
Investigators tracked the vehicle to the 700 block of Lincoln Street and located its operator, 31-year-old Kent Reimers of Walcott. Reimers was interviewed, arrested, and charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident.
Several firefighters were injured in the crash, and firefighter Matt Fisher had to be hospitalized and sent to surgery after he suffered serious wounds.
Fisher is expected to recover, but it will reportedly be a months-long, surgery-ridden process.
Showing support for Fisher and his family, the Wilton Fire Department will be hosting a boot drive to collect donations to be used for the family's needs.
They also said they are accepting online donations through Venmo and Paypal and reminded users to select that they are not purchasing goods or services so all of the money will go towards the donation.
Wilton Fire also offered safety tips as the spring farm and burn season presents new hazards to divers and responders. They remind the public to give as much room as possible to farm vehicles and to always pull over or slow down for emergency vehicles running lights and sirens.
The accident was still under investigation as of Wednesday, May 4.