Raywick firefighters seriously injured in Marion County tanker truck crash

LEBANON, Ky. (FOX 56) — Two firefighters with the Raywick Fire Department are fighting for their lives in the hospital after a tanker truck crash in Marion County on Friday afternoon.

Kentucky State Police announced in a news release on Aug. 23 that 51-year-old Brian Hatt was driving north on KY-537 in a 2008 fire department tanker truck with emergency equipment activated to help the Loretto Fire Department responding to a “fire incident.”

An initial investigation by state police showed that the tanker truck dropped off the right shoulder of the road, causing the “edge of the roadway to collapse.”

Hatt reportedly lost control of the vehicle, which went across the road, hit an earth embankment, and overturned.

Authorities wrote that Hatt was ejected from the truck, with fellow Raywick firefighter, 58-year-old Leonard Winkler, trapped inside.

Hatt was flown to the University of Louisville Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Winkler, also seriously injured, was flown to the University of Kentucky Hospital, per KSP.

Raywick fire officials took to social media on Saturday to announce that a vigil for Hatt and Winkler would be held at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 24, at the fire department on Broadway Street.

An investigation into the crash remains ongoing.