The fire chief of Greenfield says last week’s back-to-back fatal accidents in eastern Greene County have taken their toll, mentally, on his crew.
Two 23-year-old men- one from Greenfield, the other from Murrayville, died in crashes in less than 24 hours on Wednesday and Thursday. In both instances, the vehicles the men were driving caught fire as a result of the wreck.
There are 38 fire personnel and first responders in Greenfield, according to Fire Chief Warren Vetter. He says in his time as fire chief, they’ve never dealt with circumstances like that.
“All the years I’ve been on, we’ve never had one back-to-back. I mean, that was the hard part,” he says.
“And both of these boys had been from the local area. We have a lot of younger firemen who know these people. That’s the difficult part, when you know individuals. We talked to them, and we’re dealing with it as we feel appropriate. We are going to keep an eye on them, and we will get some counseling if we feel necessary in a week or two,” Vetter continues.
Vetter says at this point, no benefits are being planned in the Greenfield community for the family members of Devan Antrobus or Derek Buhl. But, he says it’s a tight-knit community, and he’s sure something will be scheduled sometime in the future.