VIDEO: Herb Bunnell has had quite a career as a firefighter; he is an icon at the Harwinton West Volunteer Fire Department, where he spent all 55 years of his career. Even though he is no longer on active duty, firefighters, young and old, from beginner to chief, all give him great respect.
He was chatting with current Chief Scott Kellogg and a firefighter and his young children Wednesday afternoon, all captivated by his presence. He can recall memories from decades ago like they were yesterday, though some he would rather not remember. Back in 1976, Bunnell was the training officer at the department. His crew was headed to the fairgrounds for a hose drill with a neighboring department.
Bunnell waited patiently for his crew to show up. They were not just late, they never arrived. He drove along the route his crew was taking through the steep hills of Harwinton when he was met with a horrific scene on Route 4. “When I came down center hill and I saw the situation, it will stay in my mind forever,” he said.
The pump truck broke, losing drive and crashing into the tanker behind it. “The first lead truck was out ahead of the tanker, and the U-joint broke on that truck, so it didn’t have any drive, and it rolled back into the tanker,” Bunnell said.
Back in the 70’s and even earlier, most firefighters rode on the back of their trucks. Two of the crew members avoided injury, unscathed, while two others had serious injuries and broken bones. Another firefighter was still trapped, gruesomely pinned between the two trucks. “(The impact) was hard enough so that we had to get a payloader from O&G to pull the front truck off of the back truck so we could free up that person,” he said.
That firefighter’s injuries were so severe that she had to have her leg amputated at the hospital. From that point on, the department stopped riding in the back of fire vehicles. That crash and others that followed it led in part to the National Fire Protection Association banning the practice of riding in the back of fire trucks.
“There have been, obviously, improvements to fire vehicles since then. And we all have no more riding on the backs of trucks, everything is in the cab,” Bunnell said. “Now, when we’re purchasing vehicles, any department is purchasing in-cab trucks, so you have a crew that’s riding inside, protected.”
