Teamwork Fire Truck Recovery

On June 3, 2013, Tow Pro Wrecker Service was called by the Jefferson City (Mo.) Fire Department to pull one of their fire trucks out of a ditch. When turning south onto a road, the fire truck encountered an oncoming pick-up truck traveling on the wrong side of the road and swerved to avoid it, then tipped into the ditch. The vehicles didn’t make contact, but firefighters watched as the pick-up stopped, looked back, then drove off.“The large amount of water and rain that we had received over those couple of days, softened the shoulder up to cause these trucks to slide and sink … with that amount of weight, 80,000 pounds is an issue,” said Interim Fire Chief Jason Turner.“We responded with our 1985 Ford 9000 with a Holmes 750 on the back and a 1994 International Eagle with a Nomar 35-ton,” said Tow Pro owner Eddie Stafford. “After checking out the situation, we saw that the fire truck was on a real steep bank in soft ground and about to turnover. We rigged it, but it couldn’t be dragged up out of the ditch with our wreckers. It had to be lifted, so we called in Russ Automotive to assist with their rotator.“We’ve worked with Russ many times before on jobs and knew he had the right equipment to help in this situation.” Russ Automotive is based in Columbia, Mo. Once a one-man repair facility, owner Russell “Russ” Jones’ company now offers a full line of towing and recovery services, minor roadside repairs, complete automotive repairs and retail auto parts.“We already own a large rotator, and the things we can do with it are just amazing,” Russ said. “We wanted to step it up just a little bit more, to have even quicker clearance and move heavy stuff easier.”“We get called out for specialty work all the time,” said Julie Jones, Russ’ wife. “We work well with all of the local and county agencies as well as the other tow companies. In our rural area it doesn’t make sense for everyone to have a rotator. We have the 65-ton NRC sliding rotator and a Century 1060 60-ton rotator.”After receiving the call to assist, Russ responded with his 2012 Peterbilt twin-steer 65-ton NRC sliding rotator. Russ wrapped the fire truck and used the 65-ton NRC to lift it up out of the ditch and set it back onto the road.It took the Jefferson City Fire Department and three tow trucks nearly four hours to finally pull the truck from the ditch. The vehicle was driven back to the station at Hyde Park where it went through a top-to-bottom inspection before it was put back into service.