Firefighter hospitalized after truck crash near Airport Fire returns home

One of the Orange County firefighters injured after his crew's truck rolled over during a crash near the Airport Fire returned home on Friday.

Andrew Brown and his fellow firefighters were heading home on Sept. 19 after a 12-hour shift battling the devastating wildfire when their Orange County Fire Authority truck swerved to avoid a ladder along the northbound State Route 241. During the maneuver, the truck crashed into a nearby guard rail and overturned. 

In total, eight firefighters sustained injuries, six of which were serious. Two of them suffered minor injuries and were released shortly after the crash. Doctors discharged two others the following day. 

The firefighters are all part of the Santiago Handcrew, a crew on the front lines that faces grueling shifts sometimes lasting up to 24 hours. According to Chief Brian Fennessey, handcrews "tend to be younger in age, extremely physically fit and very well-trained" as they're tasked with going into "extremely steep, extremely inaccessible" terrain that even bulldozers and other machinery can't reach.   

"It is the most challenging assignment that anybody can be assigned to, and our firefighters have been working nonstop with very few breaks in helping to contain the Airport Fire," he said in September, referring to the wildfire that has destroyed dozens of homes and injured 13 firefighters and two others as it scorched tens of thousands of acres in Orange and Riverside counties.

With injuries to his neck, shoulder and spinal cord, Brown and another firefighter were transferred to a Colorado hospital. At the time, he could not walk or move his arms. Two months after the crash, Brown returned to Orange County with a warm welcome from his fellow OCFA firefighters.