Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By CHRIS DOYLE; Times Leader Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 05, 1995 Page: 3A
HARVEYS LAKE — The emergency call that a volunteer firefighter was
responding to Saturday night when he crashed, rolled and totaled the company’s
tanker truck was no prank, police and emergency officials said Monday.
There was a real fire, a bonfire in a stone fireplace, just off Queen of
Peace Road by Harrison’s Pond, said Lake Township Police Chief John Masloski.
But the group of people who started it had put it out before police and
firefighters arrived, Masloski said.
The group knew firefighters were on their way because they were listening
to a police scanner for entertainment, he said.
Police let the group go with a warning, he said. The township, like many
others in the area, recently issued a ban on open burning because of drought
conditions.
“You have to give them the benefit of the doubt that they might not have
known about the ban,” Masloski said. “They put it out right away.”
The routine call became significant after volunteer firefighter Richard E.
Williams III crashed Harveys Lake’s 1979 GMC tanker truck on Route 415, about
a minute after responding to the 9:54 p.m. call.
State police issued a press release saying they are conducting a DUI
investigation into the crash. “Charges to be filed at a later date,” the
release said.
No further information on the investigation was available from police on
Monday.
Some news reports had included speculation that the emergency call that led
to the accident was a prank because no fire was found.
Kevin O’Brien, executive director of Luzerne County Emergency Services,
said Monday that his agency dispatched Harveys Lake after Lake Township’s
dispatcher relayed the information.
The call was not made on the 911 emergency system, which can trace a call’s
origin. However, the Lake Township dispatcher had taken down the caller’s name
and address, O’Brien said.
The accident leaves the Daniel C. Roberts Fire Co. without a tanker truck.
The cost of replacing the vehicle could be $60,000 to $80,000, said Fire Chief
Frank Lutinski, who is not sure if insurance will cover any of the loss.
Lutinski said Monday that the fire company will conduct its own
investigation and determine what action to take in regard to Williams. The
fire company has strict policies concerning alcohol, he said.
Firefighters who have been drinking are prohibited from responding to
fires; alcohol is prohibited at the fire hall, and abuse of drugs or alcohol
is cause for immediate dismissal, Lutinski said.