A driver was hospitalized Sunday morning after a car left Route 33 and slammed into a Hanover County fire station, significantly damaging the building while five crew members were inside. The crash happened just after 10:45 a.m. at Montpelier Station 8, located at 16861 Mountain Road.
According to WRIC ABC 8News, the driver was traveling along Route 33 when they left the roadway and crashed into the fire station, where the vehicle came to rest. The driver was then taken to a local hospital for evaluation, officials said.
Five Fire-EMS crew members were inside the station at the time of the crash, but all of them were uninjured, per the outlet's report. The building itself did not escape unscathed, however — officials described the damage as significant, though the full extent won't be known until crews complete an assessment over the coming days.
Crews Relocating While Station Undergoes Repairs
With Montpelier Station 8 out of commission for now, Fire-EMS crews will be relocated to another fire station while repairs are made to the damaged building, the same report notes. No timeline for those repairs or the length of the relocation has been released.
Vehicles crashing into fire stations are rare but not unheard of. In June, an SUV drove off the road and crashed into a Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District station in Illinois, according to Lake & McHenry County Scanner. That crash left no firefighters or civilians injured, and the building sustained only minor damage, with station operations continuing unaffected while the Round Lake Police Department investigated the cause.
No similar cause has been determined for the Hanover County crash as of Sunday afternoon. Officials have not released further details about what led the driver to leave Route 33, and the driver's condition beyond being taken in for evaluation has not been disclosed.
