A break failure incident that left a St. George firefighter injured has since brought the local community together during his journey to recovery.
Brandon Redd is a 22-year-old firefighter for the St. George Fire Department and is also a member of the United States Marine Corps. On Oct. 30, Redd was on-duty after a ribbon cutting event. When returning from the event at Fire Station Ten, Redd faced brake failure from improperly fixed brakes while driving the antique 1948 Ahrens-Fox fire engine to Fire Station Nine.
An anonymous source said once Redd realized the brakes had failed, he tried shifting to lower gears to slow down, but it was too late. This resulted in a T-bone collision with an SUV, which ultimately ejected Redd from the engine due to the lack of safety restraints in the old cab.
The emergency responders arriving at the scene found Redd across the roadway against a curb, where he was rushed to the emergency room. According to St. George News, the occupants in the SUV were reported uninjured at the scene.
Redd broke one of his vertebrae in his back and received the kyphoplasty procedure to help with proper healing. The anonymous source said the procedure went smoothly, and he can stand for short periods of time.
“If it would have gone a centimeter closer to his spinal cord, then he would have been paralyzed,” the anonymous source said. “The fact that he is able to walk or stand after that is really cool.”
Logan Wallace, friend and SGFD engineer, was off-duty when he received the text that Redd had been in an accident. Wallace said his initial reaction was to find out what exactly happened. Since then, Wallace has been checking in frequently on Redd to see if he needs anything and said the St. George community and fire department have also stepped up to help Redd in any way possible.
“It’s been awesome to see that if something happens, we come together and put all of our differences aside, whether we don’t work on the same crew or don’t really know that guy very well, it didn’t matter,” Wallace said. “Everybody came through to make sure that they were showing support, and same with the community.”
Part of the support includes fundraising for the expenses during recovery. Firefighter Christopher Bedke from SGFD suggested a fundraiser within the department by selling off-duty hats to fellow firefighters.
“We did hats last year, so we were getting ready to do an order this year, and I asked one of the captains if he thought it’d be a good idea if we just made it into a fundraiser,” Bedke said.
The SGFD also has a spreadsheet amongst the firefighters, where meals are being brought to Redd. Wallace said everybody has dropped off a variety of meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner to make sure Redd and his family don’t have any stress added to their days.
Redd has a long road ahead of him before he can make a full recovery and step back into the shoes of a firefighter. Wallace said the main concern the doctors have is kyphosis starting to appear. Similar to scoliosis, this would cause Redd’s spine to change shape by rounding forward from the weakened bones. If this did begin to happen, another surgery would need to occur to place metal rods alongside the spine for support against the kyphosis.
“If he gets internal rods put in place, that’s more or less a career ender,” Wallace said. “He’s medically retired at 22 years old.”
Even through this all, Wallace has noticed that Redd has stayed positive and in good spirits. He said that Redd has said he is more or less happy it was him and not another firefighter because he knows he is strong enough to make it through.
“We are blessed and lucky that Redd is alive, and a broken spine is the only thing that he received out of it, and I hope that it’s not downplayed at all because the only reason they’re not trying to plan a funeral right now is because Redd is a tough son of a bitch,” Wallace said.
Through this incident, the community of SGFD and local friends have stepped up to support Redd on his path to healing. A fundraiser is available to help Redd during the recovery process.
