Rough windy day for Tracy Fire...

Wind breaks an ankle and a windshield

Bob Brownne / Tracy Press / Thursday, 20 September 2007

Today was calm, but Wednesday's gusts left one firefighter's ankle broken and a damaged fire engine in its wake.

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Today’s winds have calmed down to 8 mph, but Wednesday’s high winds through the Altamont Pass took a toll on the Tracy Fire Department.

Division Chief Germane Friends said a firefighter was injured and a fire engine was damaged after winds played havoc on crews that arrived at an overturned big rig and on the scene of a grass fire.

The firefighter, whose name was not released, was about to step out of a truck as it arrived at the scene of the big rig crash — one of two that afternoon — on Interstate 580, just east of Patterson Pass Road. Friends said the wind, which he estimated at 60 mph or more, grabbed the truck’s door, swung it open and then slammed it shut on the firefighter’s ankle.

Friends said the firefighter, from the Station 94 crew at Schulte and Hansen roads, went to the hospital and will be off duty until his leg heals.

A short time later, the crew from Station 97, based on West Central Avenue, arrived at a grass fire at Interstate 580 and Corral Hollow Road. In that case, the wind also grabbed the fire engine door and swung it around until the rear-view mirror slammed into the truck’s windshield. The impact cracked the glass, which will have to be replaced before the engine can go back into service, Friends said.

These were just two of more than half a dozen wind-related calls to which the department responded. The National Weather Service reported sustained winds at 25 mph at Stockton Metropolitan Airport on Wednesday afternoon, with gusts up to 35 mph. Both the Tracy Fire Department and California Highway Patrol estimated winds as high as 60 mph along Interstate 580.

“The dust blowing in the area, it was so bad it looked like a smoke cloud,” Friends said.

The fire department responded to five reports of car crashes, each involving more than two cars, two reports of phone lines down and a report of a lightning strike at Byron and Mountain House roads.