VIDEO: The Anchorage Fire Department is sounding its own alarm, asking people to give its crews space when responding to emergencies. Last Friday, AFD responded to a car that had crashed into a building on Gambell Street. According to the fire department, while crews were responding to the crash, they encountered numerous near-collisions with other vehicles on the road. โWe had many motorists driving by, unfortunately, focusing on what responders were doing, instead of avoiding the work area,โ Jason Dolph, a safety officer with AFD, said. โIn fact, in one case, a vehicle came within an inch of striking one of our first responders.โ
According to AFD, around 50 firefighters die across America each year while responding to emergencies on the countryโs roadways, many hit by passing vehicles. โWe all show up to work wanting to make a difference and to help people, but we also show up wanting to end the day happy, healthy, to be able to return to our own families,โ Dolph said. โWe canโt replace an emergency responder. If someone was to strike an emergency responder, it would be devastating to our organization, to their families, and to the community.โ In 2012, Anchorage Fire Department truck 11 was hit by a vehicle while AFD was responding to an incident on the side of the highway, Dolph said.
The department stated that at the scene, first responders had to dive out of the way to avoid being hit. According to AFD, two people were eventually extricated from the vehicle that had originally crashed and were taken to a local hospital. In addition to the cost of human life, the department told Alaskaโs News Source that these types of collisions can result in major equipment damage. โRight here in Anchorage, as recent as 2022, we had a vehicle rear-end one of our fire engines, cost over $200,000 worth of damage,โ Dolph said. โPut our apparatus out of service for over a year.
