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A Toronto man stole a fire truck parked at a Home Depot yesterday and, sirens blaring, led police on a high-speed chase that ended with the truck in a ditch, a 20-year-old in jail and four firefighters with a lot of explaining to do.
The truck was stolen around noon while its crew popped into the home-improvement store a few blocks from their fire hall in the city's northwest, police said.
No one was hurt in the chase that reached speeds of 100 kilometres an hour and zipped through traffic-choked streets spanning two police jurisdictions, ending up in Kleinburg, north of the city.
The four-man fire crew was heading into the final quarter of a 24-hour shift when they entered the store, located minutes from their red-brick fire hall on Keele Street.
A man climbed into the driver's seat of fire hall 141's sole fire truck -- a pumper worth $40,000 when it was bought seven years ago -- and took hold of the wheel.
Fire trucks don't require ignition keys. Instead, drivers press a number of knobs in the correct sequence.
"This isn't the kind of vehicle you can get in and drive away," said executive officer Sean Pearce of Toronto Fire Services. In this case, he said, the person "hit the right buttons."
Lights flashing and siren blaring, the truck veered out of the parking lot and sped west on Steeles Avenue.
Two police officers on Weston Road noticed its "erratic driving" and gave chase, Detective Larry Rebellato of the Toronto police said.
They sped through several red lights before the truck side-swiped three vehicles and jumped a curb at the intersection of Barmac Drive. No one was hurt.
The truck headed north on Islington Avenue, went through more red lights, and forced the officers to give up for safety reasons.
Back at the Home Depot, the firefighters came out to find their vehicle missing. They radioed communications, which called Toronto police.
Using a GPS tracking system on the truck, they located the speeding vehicle. Police in York Region, north of Toronto, then took up the chase on Islington Avenue and continued as it veered west onto Major MacKenzie Drive.
But when the truck flew over speed bumps at between 90 and 100 kilometres an hour, the York cruisers were forced to quit, too, Det. Rebellato said.
The thief's ride ended soon afterward when the truck slammed into a ditch on Highway 27 near Kirby Road in Kleinburg. He had driven 25 kilometres. York police arrested a suspect nearby in a field.
As police detectives investigated the theft, fire officials led an investigation of their own.
The four-man crew which lost the truck was busy yesterday afternoon taking hoses and equipment out of it and outfitting a replacement truck.
Waiting for them to return to the fire hall yesterday evening were two district commanders, a union representative and a media spokesman.
Mr. Pearce, the executive officer, would not comment on why the firefighters were at Home Depot. He said they had just finished responding to a call elsewhere.
Thefts of fire trucks are extremely rare, Mr. Pearce said, because the vehicles are so difficult to start and manoeuvre. "If you know the sequence, it takes moments to start the truck," he said. "If you don't . . . you may never start the truck. In this case, this person hit the right buttons."
No one at Toronto fire headquarters could remember one going missing in the city, he said.
However, a similar heist east of Toronto five years ago led Whitby Fire and Emergency Services to purchase anti-theft devices and set strict policies on not leaving the trucks unattended.
A fire truck parked outside the city's psychiatric hospital was stolen while firefighters were touring the facility. "One of the patients took it for a joyride," Whitby Fire Chief Kent MacCarl said last night. "He went maybe five kilometres before crashing it into a ditch."
The department's drivers now stay with their vehicles in all but rare cases and, if forced to leave the truck, can activate locks that prevent the air brakes from being released.
Another fire truck was stolen and totalled last month in Winnipeg, allegedly by a drunken man.
A number of other fire departments contacted by The Globe and Mail said thefts of the vehicles are extremely unusual.
Kapil Patel, 20, is charged with 10 counts in connection with yesterday's theft, including dangerous operation of a vehicle, failure to stop at an accident and failure to stop for police.
Mr. Patel, who police say is unemployed with no fixed address, is scheduled to appear in court today.