Township police and area fire companies were busy the morning of Thursday, April 17 attending to two crashes on busy thoroughfares.
Around 10:22 a.m., police responded to a one-car accident that crashed into a Met-Ed utility pole, police said.
The driver, Stephen Decarlo, 42, of Douglassville, told police that he fell asleep while driving back from the Kutztown area.
Police, who did not find any signs of intoxication, said Decarlo’s version of events fit their findings.
The Subuaru Outback Decarlo was driving needed to be towed from the scene after it plowed through a mailbox and hit the pole on Route 662 near Pine Forge Road, police said.
Decarlo refused treatment, police said.
The damage to the pole cause 1,353 Met-Ed customers in Amity and Earl townships to lose power, according to company spokesperson Karen Baxter.
The Amity Township Police Department was also without power, operating on a back-up generator. Calls for the police were directed through Berks Radio.
As of 1:15 p.m., all but two customers had their power back. Baxter said the two customers closest to the crash wouldn’t have power back until 10 p.m. Thursday.
Police said the road was closed for a little less than an hour.
Then around 11:40 a.m., fire companies and police responded to a van on fire in the westbound lanes of Route 422 near Hill Road.
A 1978 Volkswagen van began to smoke while it was being driven by owner 62-year-old Joseph Wenrich, of Muhlenberg, police said.
The cause of the fire is unknown at this time, but it took 45 minutes for firefighters to extinguish the flames, according to Dave Feltenberger, of the Monarch Fire Company.
Volkswagen vans have magnesium in their engines, according to Feltenberger. That type of chemical fire can not be put out by water, he said. In fact, water helps propel magnesium fires, according to Feltenberger. The Exeter Fire Company was called to bring a special extinguishing compound.
While emergency crews worked both lanes of westbound traffic were closed for approximately 90 minutes.
Wenrich was unharmed, according to police.
