Super tough Sunday for first responders

Two serious traffic accidents during the Super Bowl led to a tough night for first responders Sunday.Just after 8 p.m., a driver northbound on Ga. Hwy. 7 ran off the road and under a trailer at Shirley’s Surplus. The driver had to be extricated and lifeflighted to a trauma center. The accident closed the four-lane northbound for about an hour.First responders were called from that scene to another at the intersection of Fredonia Church Road and Hwy. 41 South where the male driver of a Chrysler 200 apparently pulled out of Fredonia Church Rd. into the path of an eastbound tractor-trailer. A female passenger was removed from the vehicle and taken from the scene by ambulance. The driver was finally removed after an heroic, 45-minute effort by firefighters and lifeflighted.Both occupants of the Chrysler were unconscious for a time. Their conditions are unknown.At the height of these responses and when manpower and equipment were at a premium, an ambulance caught fire. Flames coming from beneath the driver’s seat put the ambulance out of commission.For much more on this story, see the 2.4.20 print edition of The Herald Gazette.