California fire trucks collide, leaving 15 injured

Two California fire trucks collided with one another before one of them plowed into a restaurant and injuring several people on Wednesday afternoon.

The fire engines were heading to respond to a fire Wednesday afternoon when one of them diverted toward a restaurant building after hitting the other truck, injuring 15 people, five of them firefighters, said Lt. Carrie Mazelin of the Monterey Park Police Department, as reported by KTLA5.

One person remained in critical condition Thursday according to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center spokeswoman Rosa Saca.

The two fire trucks belonged to Monterey Park Fire Department and Alhambra Fire Department and were driving with lights and sirens toward a fire in Monetary Park before the crash, according to Monterey Park Fire Department Chief Jim Birrell.

“There was a loud boom and a lot of shaking. I thought it was an earthquake,” Wendy Wu, a waitress at the Chinese restaurant said through an interpreter, according to the Associated Press.

Walking out of the restaurant’s walk-in freezer, she saw a refrigerator pushed across the room and furniture in disarray as several people were bleeding with injuries.