The firefighters were ending a 12-hour shift battling the Airport fire, one of the biggest blazes in California this year.
Eight firefighters were injured when their truck rolled over on a highway near Irvine, Calif., on Thursday, as they were ending a 12-hour shift fighting one of California’s biggest blazes this year.
The injured are frontline firefighters known as hand crew, Brian Fennessy, the chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, said at a news conference. Hand crews often work long hours in extreme temperatures to contain major wildfires. The firefighters had been battling the Airport fire, which has burned more than 23,000 acres.
The crash mangled the front of the fire truck, and the impact from the rollover appeared to have snapped the rear cab off the chassis, according to footage from the scene aired by KCAL News in Los Angeles.
Emergency crews took the injured firefighters to hospitals, Mr. Fennessy said. He did not share details about their conditions other than to say that two of the eight were “stable.”
Firefighters in Southern California have been battling several major blazes for weeks. The Airport fire was 42 percent contained, according to InciWeb, a government website that tracks wildfires.
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