Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Marcos Espiritu was working an overnight shift at Station 96 when he heard dozens of recruits jog past just before sunrise.
They were a familiar sight to Espiritu, who has worked at the station on Mills Avenue in South Whittier for around 10 years.
After they passed, Espiritu heard a terrible crash. Then, screaming. As he moved to see what had happened, a deputy recruit suddenly banged on the station door.
“We need help,” the recruit said.
Espiritu and another firefighter walked the few hundred feet to the crash site. Two others drove the engine over.
“There was just total chaos,” Espiritu said. A Honda CR-V had veered the wrong way into the 75 recruits — the majority of them from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department — who had been running in formation. He saw that the SUV had crashed into a light pole, which had slammed to the ground. His No. 1 concern as he arrived, he said, was the live wire and the recruits lying on top of it. They needed to be moved, and fast.