By Clarence Williams and Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, July 26, 2008

A small fire in upper Northwest Washington led to the thunderous collision yesterday of a firetruck headed to the scene and a car on a cross street.

Two people were injured, the car was wrecked and the truck's bumper was damaged, according to Alan Etter, spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services.

Both of the injured, a 34-year-old motorist and a 47-year-old firefighter, were released after hospital treatment, Etter said. The crash occurred about 3:20 p.m. at Fifth and Longfellow streets.

"It was loud," said Margaret Hancock, who lives a few houses from the scene. The sound of the impact, she said, was the kind that makes people come running. It "threw people out of their houses."

People went to the car and fell silent, she said. "Everybody was just looking, wondering whether the man in the car was okay."

Then, she said, firetrucks and police cars arrived "from every which way."

Police said the car's driver received a ticket for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.

The fire, which turned out to be minor, according to Etter, was at Longfellow and Seventh streets, which is only one block from Longfellow and Fifth, where the crash occurred.

Etter said the firetruck had apparently been traveling the wrong way on a brief stretch of Longfellow, a one-way street at certain points. He said regulations permit such procedure in the neighborhood of a fire.

The incident is under investigation by the fire department, Etter said.