Flames, trains and automobiles: Dickinson authorities respond to several incidents

Dickinson authorities had their hands full Monday as four separate travel and fire-related incidents took place throughout the day.

After a train rear-ended a semitrailer west of Patterson Lake, a patrol vehicle collided with a flat-bed truck in north Dickinson, a car burst into flames on the west side of town and a small portion of a Dunn County field caught fire.

No one was seriously hurt, law enforcement officials said.

At approximately 10 a.m., Jose Vazquez, a northbound Louisiana Transportation Inc. truck driver, crossed railroad tracks near the Dickinson Trap Club west of Patterson Lake, when an eastbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe train hit the back end of his trailer, said Capt. Fern Moser of the Stark County Sheriff’s Office. Vasquez told officials he did not hear the train coming, Moser added.

Moser said the train and Vazquez’s 1996 Peterbilt sustained $10,000 in damages each.

When Vasquez reported having neck and back pains, Dickinson Ambulance transported him to St. Joseph’s Hospital, he said.

“It sounded like he was in and out pretty quick,” Moser added.

Three hours after the train run-in, Dickinson’s police and fire departments responded to a collision at the north end of town.

DPD Sgt. Mike Hanel said it was about 1 p.m. when a patrol car and flat-bed truck collided while attempting to pass through the intersection of 21st Street and Third Avenue at the same time in north Dickinson.

“Our officers were assisting Killdeer Ambulance in traffic control coming into town. (The ambulance) had an individual that was in critical condition,” Hanel said.

Roy Jenkins, the Casper, Wyo. native driving the eastbound flat-bed, said he tried to move through the intersection safely.

“I was going through the intersection, and the light was turning yellow,” Jenkins said. “I heard the siren, but I didn’t see (the patrol car).”

Hanel added that the investigation was handed over to Highway Patrol, so the incident could be examined by an “impartial reviewer.”

Trooper Chris Messer said the incident is under investigation, adding that it is unclear if the accident was anyone’s fault because authorities were trying to move around traffic during an emergency situation.

“There’s a lot of factors,” Messer said.

He also said there was “substantial damage” to the patrol car, adding that “the antifreeze and everything was out of the vehicle.”

As authorities worked to clear wreckage from the intersection, backed-up traffic extended two blocks south. It was around 1:30 when the area was cleared, approximately the same time a car burst into flames west of town, said Andy Paulson, assistant chief for the Dickinson Rural Fire Department.

Firefighters responded to the CHS Nutrition parking lot, off GTA Drive in west Dickinson, where an employee’s car was on fire, Paulson said.

“We couldn’t see exactly what started the fire,” he added.

Jeremy Armstrong, the vehicle’s owner, said he was working on the building’s third floor when a “frantic” voice shouted to him over the intercom.

“(Other workers) were out here with the extinguishers trying to put out my car,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong added that he recently took his car to get fixed because it had an oil leak. He is unsure if the leak had anything to do with the fire, which destroyed his engine and scorched other parts of the vehicle.

Less than five hours after Armstrong called his wife for a ride home, rural firefighters responded to a field fire in Dunn County.

The fire burned a little more than an acre of a corn field off 29th Street Southwest, north of Dickinson, Paulson said, adding that firefighters are stumped as to what caused the blaze.

“We can’t find any evidence what would have started the fire here,” he said.

The incident is under investigation, he added.

Tags: news, local, dickinson