8 OC firefighters seriously injured in truck crash on Irvine Freeway upon returning from the front

Eight firefighters from the Orange County Fire Authority's Santiago Squad battling the airport fire were injured Thursday – six of them seriously – when their vehicle crashed and overturned on State Route 241, officials said.

The accident occurred around 6:45 p.m. when the vehicle swerved to avoid a ladder on the highway north of Portola Parkway in Irvine, California Highway Patrol spokesman Jeremy Tolen told OnScene.TV.

All eight vehicle occupants were evacuated by helicopter. Half a dozen suffered serious injuries and two moderate injuries, he added.

Aerial photographs of the accident scene captured on local news showed wreckage and debris, including a battered metal ladder, scattered across the road.

After a car swerved in front of the fire engine to avoid the ladder, “the driver of the Orange County Fire Authority [vehicle] “I also saw the ladder and swerved to avoid it. In doing so, I hit the guardrail on the right side of the road,” Tolen said. “At that point, the fire engine overturned.”

Both directions of the highway were temporarily closed to allow helicopters to land and evacuate, according to an Orange County Fire Authority dispatcher who declined to give his name. The southbound lanes reopened around 8:35 p.m., the dispatcher said.

Tolen said he wanted to “remind people to secure their loads and make sure there are no loose ladders, as sometimes they can come loose in a tragedy like this.”

The Santiago de Chile crew involved in the accident had just finished their shift fighting fires at the airport, Tolen said.

Orange County Councilwoman Katrina Foley called the firefighters “tough, true servants of the state” in a statement on X and urged the public to “pray for them.”

“They worked so hard to save lives and property for us. Now we must help save them,” she wrote. “Tonight's accident is too tragic.”

Thanks to cooler temperatures and increasing humidity, firefighters had been able to control the wildfires in Southern California in recent days. The OCFA battled the airport fire that broke out in Trabuco Canyon on September 9. The flames quickly raced up the Santa Ana Mountains. Within days, tens of thousands of acres of land in Riverside and Orange counties were charred.

The fire brigade has made progress in the fight against the fire. By Thursday evening, the fire was 42 percent under control.

He said crews were able to reinforce containment lines and ease conditions for firefighters, who could now work longer hours due to cooler temperatures.