3 dead after KCFD fire truck collides with SUV, crashes into building

By SHAIN BERGAN, MORGAN MOBLEY, NICK SLOAN

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    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KCTV) — Three people were killed late Wednesday night after a fire truck collided with an SUV and crashed into a building in Westport.

A Kansas City Fire Department truck was heading northbound on Broadway Boulevard near Westport Road on the way to a house fire shortly after 10 p.m. The fire truck then collided with a Honda CRV that was traveling westbound on Westport Road. Both vehicles ended up crashing into the building housing the former Riot Room music venue.

The man and woman inside the SUV died, and authorities on Thursday morning are searching for a third victim, a pedestrian who was at the scene. It is believed that that pedestrian is under the building’s rubble.

“It’s been complicated by the fact that the building is very unstable and presents a risk to rescuers,” said Sgt. Bill Mahoney with the Kansas City Police Department.

Authorities are investigating what caused the crash. There is no word yet on if weather was a factor. Wednesday night saw severe weather, including high winds with gusts up to 77 miles per hour in the Kansas City metro.

“Again, I cannot say this enough—When you see emergency lights and sirens and see our apparatus coming in, we’re going to somebody’s incident. Please pull over. Slow down. Pull over to the right. Tonight, it was very tragic,” said KCFD spokesman Jason Spreitzer. “This is a tragic event. I think if anybody says this doesn’t affect you isn’t telling you how it really is. We come to work to help people every day. And today, it was devastating, you know, because we went out to help people and in the process of helping people, our crews had to help ourselves.”

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