By Daniel Smithson
The Gainesville Sun, Fla.
TRENTON, Fla.—Two members of Trenton Fire Department were seriously injured and flown to UF Health Shands Hospital after a Thursday night crash on State Road 26, according a Trenton city officials.
Ryan Cumbie, 22, and Troy Breton, 55, first responders with the city’s fire rescue service, were headed to an emergency call about 6 p.m., when their truck and a Volkswagen Jetta, driven by 39-year-old Jodi Turner, crashed at SR 26 and Shady Grove Road, a city of Trenton news release says. All three people involved in the crash are from Trenton.
Turner was taken to the hopsital with injuries not considered life-threatening, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Cumbie and Breton had to be extricated from the truck, FHP said, and were transported to UF Health Shands.
Trenton Chief of Public Safety Matthew Rexroat said both required emergency surgery and, as of Friday afternoon, were in the hospital’s trauma intensive-care unit in critical but stable condition.
The men were unconscious, he said, in medically-induced comas.
Rexroat said having been around Cumbie and Breton, both are “very loyal to their community.”
Trenton Fire Rescue’s first responders are paid volunteers, Rexroat said. It takes dedication, he said, to do what they do.
Cumbie has worked for the agency for two years, Rexroat said. Breton has worked there for 12.
“They’re paid on call. They don’t sit at the station like a traditional firefighter,” he said. “They do this on their own time.
“They’re just great guys all around and they love to provide service to their community.”
By 4 p.m. Friday, about 300 people had shared a City of Trenton Public Safety Department’s Facebook post about the accident.
Many offered prayers, while others expressed support for the first responders in a year of heartache for Trenton.
Facebook user Michael F. Porter deemed the accident “awful.”
“This is the same small community in which two deputies were ambushed and killed while having lunch a few months ago,” Porter wrote, referencing Gilchrist County Sgt. Noel Ramirez, a 30-year-old seven-year law enforcement officer, and 25-year-old Deputy Taylor Lindsey. Ramirez and Lindsey were killed April 19 by John Hubert Highnote, 59, of Bell, at Ace China in Trenton.
Facebook user Ty Garmany wrote that Gilchrist County has had a “rough year.”
Rexroat agreed.
“It’s another hit to first responders,” he said. “Yet again, we’re faced with a surreal moment that we always know is a possibility but when it happens, it’s a shock.”
Copyright 2018 The Gainesville Sun, Fla.