Horrific crash kills firefighter

Ladder truck goes out of control, strikes building

Firefighters held their helmets over their hearts as Lieutenant Kevin M. Kelley's body was lifted into an ambulance. (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

A fire engine returning from a routine medical call apparently went out of control on a steep side street, screamed across four lanes of traffic, rammed through a gate, and smashed into a high-rise apartment building, killing a veteran firefighter, critically injuring another, and spraying a half dozen children inside a first-floor computer lab with shards of glass.

Lieutenant Kevin M. Kelley, a 30-year veteran firefighter and 52-year-old married father of three daughters, who was sitting in a passenger seat, died instantly. The critically injured firefighter was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital with a head injury, a city official said.

Two other firefighters in the truck were treated for minor injuries and were in good condition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman Jaime Lyons.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene as the 110-foor ladder truck, with four firefighters inside, barreled down narrow Parker Hill Avenue at about 2:32 p.m., blasted across four lanes on Huntington Avenue, smashed two parked cars, and crashed through the front gate of the apartment complex in Mission Hill.

Michael Ferchak, a 37-year-old nurse in the intensive care unit of Brigham and Women's, had just parked his car on Parker Hill Avenue and was walking across Huntington on his way to work when he heard the long blast of the fire engine's horn. He turned and saw the truck speed past him and crash into the building.

He ran to help and saw one firefighter banging on the window, pleading to get out. He opened the door and let the firefighter out. In the front of the truck, he saw a firefighter slumped over the steering wheel. Water from a burst pipe in the building was pouring onto the firefighter "like a waterfall coming down all over him, and he wasn't conscious, and he was gurgling." He lifted the man's head away from the water to prevent him from drowning, he said.

"It was a mess," he said. "It was a real mess." He added, "I'm a little overwhelmed by it all. I just think it was an instinctual thing to help."

Karolyn Damian, 11, had just gotten off the bus and was headed to the building when she saw the truck race past her.

"I saw the fire truck just going down the hill, going too fast, and it flew into the computer center," she said. "It was just a loud boom."

It was not immediately clear what caused the truck to lose control, just blocks from its firehouse on Huntington Avenue, but two city officials said the truck's brakes may have failed. Those officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, cited reports from the scene.

Children ages 7 to 12, who were in a computer lab in the building working on an after-school project, ran from the room screaming. Some were bleeding, witnesses said. "Some of the kids were full of glass," said David Ramos, 46, a resident of the complex. "They were sitting next to the window where the impact was."

Ramos grabbed paper towels and helped clean up some of the children, who were bleeding with cuts from the flying debris. "It was chaotic for these kids. They were nervous, crying, screaming," he said.

Ramos said the crash was so powerful that he felt it as he left his family's apartment nine floors above the computer lab. He likened it to a tremor from an earthquake.

One woman inside the apartment building was screaming. "She was desperate to get out," said Daisy Caban, 33, a resident. "She was screaming, 'Get me out of here! Help!' "

The truck, Ladder 26, was wedged halfway into the apartment building, its front window smashed. Firefighters immediately raced to the scene and worked to extricate their severely injured comrades. One suffered an ankle injury during the rescue.

Just before 4:30 p.m., the firefighters formed two rows as Kelley's body was removed from the wreckage. The firefighters bowed their heads and held their helmets over their hearts, watching as Kelley's body was carried into an ambulance.

Richard Serino, chief of Boston Emergency Medical Services, said last night that the 120-unit apartment building was evacuated because there was no power, heat, or water in it. He said he didn't know if the people would be forced out of their homes all night.

Boston Police were trying to determine the cause of the accident. Fire officials on the scene cautioned against speculation about the cause of the crash, but in contract negotiations with the city the fire union has complained that the city does not spend enough on truck maintenance.

Kelley, a second-generation firefighter who lived in Quincy, joined the department in 1978 and served with ladder 26 - the city's busiest such unit, in its busiest firehouse - since 1990, said Steve MacDonald, a Fire Department spokesman.

In 1996, Kelley helped rescue three adults and two children who were "stricken with terror and threatening to jump" from a fire escape that was engulfed in smoke and flames from a fast-moving blaze in Roxbury, according to a 1997 commendation that the department gave Kelley and several comrades for their "ability to work as a team under hazardous conditions."

Last night, speaking at a news conference in the middle of Huntington Avenue, a somber Edward A. Kelly, president of Local 718 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, described Kelley as "a true veteran who served the city with distinction."

"Many questions remain as to why this horrific accident happened," Kelly said. "Tonight we ask the people of Boston to stand with us as you always have. Pray for the Kelley family. Pray for three firefighters who are in the hospital right now, for the other people who were hurt today. I ask you to, please, God bless Lieutenant Kelley."

Ladder 26 is one of 23 ladder trucks in the city's fleet and one of eight that are 13 years or more old. It was manufactured by a Florida-based company, E-One. The model year is 1995, and it is a 110-foot truck with a four-door cab.

The fire truck, which was bought new, passed its last annual safety inspection in March 2008 and a ladder inspection in September 2008, city officials said.

On Dec. 10, the same truck was involved in an accident not far from yesterday's crash, when it rear-ended a car in a rainstorm on Huntington Avenue. An investigation later determined that the driver of the car was at fault because the car had cut off the fire truck, city officials said. There were no problems with the truck's brakes at the time.

A spokeswoman for E-One, Amanda Davis, declined to comment on the crash but said, "Our thoughts are with the department and the families."

Toxicology tests will be performed, as is standard procedure.

The death was the first in the Fire Department since Warren J. Payne, 53, and Paul J. Cahill, 55, were killed in a blaze at the Tai Ho Mandarin and Cantonese Restaurant in West Roxbury in August 2007.

Firefighter deaths from crashes in fire engines are rare. Between 1993 and 2007, there have been three fatal crashes involving ladder trucks nationwide, according to Rita Fahy, a database manager at the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy.

The last fatal crash involving a Massachusetts firefighter occurred in 1988 in West Barnstable, where a firefighter was killed while responding to a call for emergency medical services in his personal vehicle, Fahy said.