Iowa volunteer firefighter on way to fire dies in crash

A firefighter on his way to help put out a brush fire Sunday near Ionia in northern Iowa was killed when two firefighting vehicles passed a tractor and then collided with each other, authorities said.

Tony Hoffman, 43, who had volunteered with the Ionia Fire Department for 17 years, was flown to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota but later died.

“Tony was very dedicated to the Dept. and the community and this huge loss is and will be felt by many,” the fire department posted Monday on its Facebook page.

According to the Iowa State Patrol, at about 4 p.m. Sunday two vehicles were responding to reports of a fire north of Ionia in Chickasaw County. The department said the fire was in a field.

One of the vehicles was a utility task vehicle that had been converted to a firefighting vehicle. The other was a firetruck. The UTV passed a slower-moving tractor, and then the firetruck followed, going around the tractor. But the firetruck hit the rear of the UTV, sending it out of control and rolling over, the patrol said.

The UTV’s driver — Hoffman — was ejected. He died of his injuries at the hospital.