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Dump truck crashes into home

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A South Strabane Township firefighter looks over the smoldering wreckage of a dump truck that crashed into this Donnan Avenue home Friday morning.

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A truck burns after crashing into a house on Donnan Avenue Friday morning.

An out-of-control dump truck with its engine compartment engulfed in flames slammed into a South Strabane house Friday morning, although crews were able to prevent the fire from spreading to the residence.

The Scott Morgan Remodeling dump truck driven by Ryan Carrell was heading north on Donnan Avenue when the engine compartment caught fire near North Main Street about 7:30 a.m., South Strabane police said.

Carrell and his passenger, Grant Lowther, jumped from the vehicle when they saw flames coming from beneath the hood, police said. Carrell told investigators he tried to put the truck in park and pull the emergency brake, but he was unable to do so in time and the one-ton dump truck began rolling backward down Donnan Avenue.

It struck a mailbox and retaining wall before careening into the house at 1761 Donnan Ave., police said. The resident inside was able to escape uninjured, police said.

The front of the truck caught fire, and flames shot high into the air, according to witnesses. The rear of the truck struck the house, causing some structural damage but keeping the fire in the engine compartment far enough away to minimize additional damage to the residence, South Strabane fire Chief Scott Reese said.

“Luckily, it was loaded with gravel,” Reese said. “The dump part of the truck went into the house, so that put the cab and engine away from the house. It shielded the house because of the aluminum bed and the gravel.”

South Strabane firefighters extinguished the blaze, although the truck’s cab was destroyed.

Police said neither Carrell nor Lowther was injured. However, Carrell, 23, of 12 S. Wade Ave., East Washington, was driving the truck without a license and will be cited, police said.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused the truck’s engine to catch fire. It was not immediately known how much structural damage the house sustained in the crash.

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