Lima, OH (WLIO) - The Lima Fire Chief praises the work of his firefighters and EMTs who responded to a fatal nine-vehicle crash on I-75 in September. During the mayor’s press conference, Chief Andy Heffner said when a situation is at its worst, the men and women of the Lima Fire Department must be at their best, which is what happened on September 4th. He says he is proud of how they handled the chain reaction crash that started on top of the SR 309 overpass and had a debris field that stretched for over a mile. Along with the one fatality, they had to deal with multiple people injured, multiple agencies responding to help, and helped maintain the crash scene until everything was cleaned up.
“We ended up having 22 people injured, 9 people transported, and we worked with 4 different fire departments, the Allen Co. Sheriff’s Department, and the state patrol. Just getting all of those things together and almost seamlessly, to get the patients taken care of, the traffic back moving, and the investigation being conducted. That is a monumental task,” says Chief Heffner. “But I think our incident commander, Captain Lee Short, did a fantastic job and it was almost textbook.”
Heffner and Mayor Sharetta Smith credit the firefighters and EMTs on their dedication to training to help protect the citizens and visitors to Lima.
