BEXAR COUNTY – A volunteer fire station in Bexar County is in disarray after a woman accidentally crashed her vehicle into it overnight and caused a significant amount of damage.
The crash happened around 12:25 a.m., Sunday, when the woman, 70, fell asleep at the wheel, drove through the intersection of Big Leaf and Pleasanton Road and into the Ata-Bexar County Line Fire Department, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
Assistant Fire Chief Robyn White said she was notified soon after the crash happened and went to the station. When she arrived, she said her first priority was checking on the driver before assessing the damages.
However, upon further investigation on Sunday afternoon, White said the building’s current condition poses quite a challenge for their station in the days ahead.
“The front of our building is gone. We had a lot of tools in that area — jaws of life, we had cutters, spreaders... a cascade system, flashlights,” White said. “Unfortunately that’s where we stored all of our extra equipment.”
Some of that equipment has been deemed unusable or unreliable, as some of it may have been damaged from the impact of the crash, according to White.
“Unfortunately due to the fact that there was an impact — our cascade system holds air. Those bottles cannot be used again. All of the extrication equipment, because it was in an accident, we can’t trust that it might not fail again.”
White said she has since filed a claim with their insurance company, but it may not be until later Sunday or Monday before an adjuster arrives.
“We’ve got a big hole in the side of our building until we get that insurance payment and it’s gonna be rough,” White said.
White said with more calls coming in, it’ll be challenging to coordinate responses with the station damages and without some of the equipment.
“This year has been hard. We’ve been very busy the last few days with a lot of calls... then we get that call in the middle of the night that our station is crumbling,” White said.
The fire station is a non-profit organization and consists of 20 volunteers. For more information on how you can help the fire station, visit their Facebook page and send them a message by clicking here.