I-84 Mishap—

Dropped Fire Hose Causes Accidents, Travel Delays 

By Andrew Gorosko

About 2,000 feet of fire hose fell backward off a town-owned fire truck and unfolded onto a travel lane of Interstate 84 as the truck was traveling forward during the morning rush on Monday, January 9.

Several vehicles that were traveling behind the fire truck were damaged when those vehicles struck the unfolded, empty, large-diameter fire hose lying on the roadway.

The incident caused travel delays on eastbound I-84, west of the Exit 10 interchange, as fire crews worked to remove the fallen fire hose from the pavement.

The fire truck was making a routine trip at the time of the incident. There were no injuries, state police said.

In a draft accident report, state police said that the fire truck, which is owned by the Town of Newtown and is used by the Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company, was being driven on I-84 by Joshua Liska, 24, of 112 Hanover Road in the left lane of two lanes on eastbound I-84.

At about 6:48 am, a 2,000-foot-long piece of fire hose, which is carried folded on the truck, came loose, with the hose then progressively falling off the back of the truck and landing behind the moving vehicle as it drove forward in the left lane, state police said. The fire hose has a five-inch diameter and has heavy metallic couplings along its length.

State police said that Liska is an employee of The Gowans-Knight Company, Inc, of Watertown, which is a fire equipment service firm. Liska was driving the truck from the Hawleyville Firehouse to a scheduled service appointment at the equipment company in Watertown.

State police said that three eastbound vehicles that were traveling behind the fire truck when the fire hose came loose were damaged when they struck the dropped fire hose.

Those vehicles were: a 2011 Nissan Juke SUV driven by Marie Grove, 35, of Danbury; a 2003 Honda CRV SUV driven by John Laslo, 61, of Hawleyville; and a 2005 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck driven by Jose Arpi, 41, of Danbury, state police said.

The vehicles received undercarriage and wheel damage. The fire truck was undamaged.

State police said that Liska told them that he had performed a required pretrip walk-around inspection of the fire truck before leaving the Hawleyville Firehouse for I-84 and that all the fire hoses appeared to be secure.

State police said that Liska told them that he felt the fire truck “bounce” while traveling on I-84 and expects that the fire hose then became loose and started unfolding onto the highway behind the moving truck.

Hook & Ladder, Sandy Hook, and Hawleyville firefighters were dispatched to the Exit 10 area at 7:19 am to help remove the fallen fire hose from the highway.

State police said they issued Liska a written warning for failure to secure a load.

Hawleyville Fire Chief Joe Farrell said of the incident, “It’s unfortunate that it happened. It’s good that no one was injured.”