A fire truck returning to a station after a call Tuesday caught fire while driving on County 2301.
No one was injured, but the vehicle is probably ruined, said Mark Bowen, Director of Emergency Services for Bay County.
It’s not clear what started the fire — the Fire Marshals Office will investigate the cause — but Bowen speculated there was a mechanical problem with the truck. He said the only firefighter on the truck at the time pulled over after seeing smoke coming from a rear tire.
The firefighter couldn’t put it out and set about instead to salvage as much equipment from the truck as possible, Bowen said.
“We’re just glad nobody was injured; there’s a lot of pressurized equipment on there,” Bowen said.
The truck was worth “a couple hundred thousand dollars,” Bowen said, but it is insured. He said the loss of the truck is hard on firefighters, and he could appreciate the irony, but he pointed out that vehicle fires happen frequently.
“As ironic as something like this is, it’s really no different than someone else’s vehicle catching fire,” he said.