Boston fire truck’s tower collapses in Mattapan

April 12--A Boston fire department tower truck suffered a "major structural failure" while responding to a two-alarm fire in Mattapan Wednesday night, fire officials said.

Tower 10 based in Jamaica Plain was lifting a firefighter to the roof of a Duke Street triple decker when, for reasons still under investigation, the tower gave way.

"I would say it's a major structural failure of the truck," said Boston Fire Department Commissioner Joseph Finn. "Its too early to say what it is, but certainly the truck failed."

The firefighter was not injured. Finn said the failure happened while the firefighter was in a bucket that was being extended over the building. He said it appears just as the bucket cleared the roof, the section holding the bucket gave way, coming to rest on the roof of the building.

"It seems the top fly section buckled and put the bucket into the roof of the building," Finn said. "Then the lower fly sections buckled."

The truck is a 2005 model made by Pierce, a Midwest-based manufacturer. Finn said it is one of the department's spare trucks and was in service because Tower 10's usual truck is being repaired.

"There was no indication this is going to happen," Finn said. "These trucks are serviced regularly and they go through preventive maintenance. So it's going to take some time to figure out what happened. The city has made a great investment in our equipment."

He said Mayor Martin J. Walsh has replaced 18 ladder trucks in the city, including one that will soon arrive for service downtown at a cost of $1.1 million. He did not know when the last time this truck was repaired or serviced.

"I don't have those records on me tonight," he said. "But I will tell you out fleet maintenance does an excellent job. They're on top of this equipment at all times."

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