A semi driver is in the hospital with severe injuries Tuesday after a semi crash in Orondo.
Crews were dispatched the crash at the bottom of the McNeil Canyon Grade, two miles north of the Beebe Bridge at around 6:41 a.m. First arriving firefighters found a heavily damaged semi, on fire, 100 feet down an embankment and through a guardrail. The semi was upside down with a loaded trailer attached. The driver was conscious, but pinned in the truck by the wreckage.
The fire was quickly extinguished. Afterward, firefighters began the process of getting the driver free from the semi. They cut the side and back off the semi cab, then cut and pulled parts of the dash, frame, seat and floor away from the victim. A team of 26 firefighters using several different tools worked on separate parts of the truck to get the driver out. It took firefighters a total for three hours and 15 minutes to get the driver free.
The severely injured driver was taken from the bottom of the canyon to an ambulance, and then transported to a waiting Life-Flight helicopter, and flown to Central Washington Hospital in Wenatchee.