Firetruck crashes into Mission Hill apartment building

The only consistent way to get there in less than an hour was to ride a bike. I stayed clear of all but two blocks of Huntington, from Fenwood road to the bunker-like fortress where I worked.

Parker Hill Ave is insanely steep, but Huntington is a death trap with poor sight lines, trolleys, trolley tracks, poor snow removal, parked cars, double parked trucks, jam packed traffic, speeding and weaving ... nuts.

Latest Boston.com report says: One firefighter was killed and one received life-threatening injuries

As of 6:00 in Coolidge Corner, the 66 bus was running, but apparently only toward Dudley Square. Unfortunately I wanted to go the other way. After the 7th Dudley-bound bus, I gave up and got in a cab.

from the Boston.com report:

When the truck struck the building, it crashed into a computer lab where seven children, ages 7 to 12, were working on an after-school project, according to resident David Ramos, 46.

"Some of the kids were full of glass," said Ramos, who ran to the lab when he felt the crash reverberate through the building. "They were sitting next to the window where the impact was."

Ramos grabbed paper towels and said he helped clean up some of the children, who were bleeding with cuts from the flying debris. All of the children's injuries appeared to be minor, Ramos said.

Three children were taken to Children's Hospital with minor injuries and are expected to be released today, according to Andrea Duggan, a hospital spokeswoman.

Most are very narrow, too, and have tight turns onto other streets. Parker Hill is the only one wide enough for a two-way road and parking, because it heads all the way over the hill, but even it takes a dog-leg up by New England Baptist.

The building I was in? It was a blood bank at one point and the rear section was actually underground. We would take an elevator to the roof to get to the parking area in back.

Parker Hill Avenue, when you look at it from the bottom of Huntington Avenue, looks to be at least a 10% grade straight up.

If there are skid marks that far up the hill, something went very very wrong well ahead of the impact.

Jethro Tull's Locomotive Breath comes to mind.

Thank heavens they appear to have had the light when they hit the bottom of the hill ... or that their way was clear. It is bad enough to hit the computer room and cause injuries to the people there, but a full bus or green line car would have been extreme.