Nobody was seriously hurt Monday when a student ran this truck into a tractor-trailer in the bus parking lot at W.A. Hough High School. Details below. (Cornelius-Lemley Fire Department photo)
Cornelius-Lemley Fire Department was unusually busy over the past week with the cold weather, running 106 calls between Monday Jan. 6 and Tuesday Jan. 14 – more than double a typical week. Of those, 45 came in a two-day span Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 7-8, when the mercury dipped into the single digits. Weather-related calls included water leaks from broken pipes, fire alarm activations, and carbon monoxide detector activations. Other calls included 9 motor vehicle accidents, 1 oven fire, and one call for smoke in Food Lion. More information about these and others below, along with a tally of this week’s medical calls.
FIRE CALLS
TUESDAY, JAN. 14, 11:54am, Magnolia Estates Dr. and W. Catawba Ave., Cornelius – firefighters responded to a vehicle accident and arrived to find 2 vehicles involved. One person was injured and was tended to be firefighters and MEDIC on scene, and was transported to the hospital with minor injuries.
MONDAY, JAN. 13, 6:54pm, 17328 Caldwell Rush Cr., Cornelius – firefighters were dispatched to a possible house fire with flames visible from the oven. Upon arrival, the oven fire was contained and had been extinguished. The oven unit was damaged and the gas was cut off. The house was ventilated and the scene was cleared.
The pickup’s cab was crushed, but nobody was seriously injured in the Monday wreck at Hough. (Cornelius-Lemley Fire Department photo)
MONDAY, JAN. 13, 3:10pm, W.A. Hough High School, bus parking lot, 12420 Bailey Rd., Cornelius – Firefighters were dispatched to the school for a report of a patient with hand lacerations. On arrival, they found a wreck involving a pickup truck and a tractor trailer. The pickup suffered extensive damage to the front driver’s side cabin, but the driver miraculously suffered only minor injuries to his hands. Three other passengers were not injured. The incident left bystanders and victims “fortunate and amazed,” according to a firefighter. A Cornelius police accident report said a total of four students were in the pickup. The 16-year-old driver, who is from Davidson, told police he had just pulled out of a parking space in his 1993 Ford pickup and was making a left turn, when someone began yelling at him. As he looked back to see who it was, he struck the parked trailer. The impact crushed the driver’s side of the cab, but nobody was seriously injured.
SATURDAY, JAN. 11, 4:20pm, West Catawba Ave. at I-77 southbound – Firefighters responded to a motor vehicle accident and arrived to find two vehicles involved with substantial damage. Two people were injured. According to a police report, a 45-year-old Charlotte man was cited for running a red light and expired registration after the wreck. The man was headed west on West Catawba in his 1995 Monte Carlo, when he went through the light and struck a 2010 Toyota driven by a 50-year-old Cornelius resident. The first driver had a cut on his forehead and chest pain. He was taken by Medic to Carolinas Medical Center. A passenger in the second car also complained of pain in her head, and was taken by Medic to the hospital. Both cars had $4,000 damage, a police report said.
SATURDAY, JAN. 11, 7:07am, 20152 N. Main St., Cornelius – firefighters were dispatched to a possible fire at Food Lion with smoke present in the building. Upon arrival, smoke was still visible. Firefighters searched extensively throughout the store looking for the source with a thermal imaging camera, but no source was found. The smoke was cleared from the building and no other hazards were found.
For more about last week’s flurry of cold-weather-related calls, see Jan. 8, 2014, “Burst pipes and cold stretch fire companies to the limit”
MEDICAL CALLS
The Cornelius Fire Department responded to 34 medical calls this week. Due to privacy laws, no addresses or other information can be provided.
- Unconscious Patient – 7
- Chest Pain – 4
- Breathing Problems – 4
- Diabetic Problems – 3
- Sick Person – 3
- Stroke – 2
- Seizure – 2
- Psychiatric Problems – 2
- Falls w Injury – 2
- Overdose – 1
- Assault – 1
- Abdominal Pain – 1
- Cold Exposure – 1
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