Ala. Firefighters Respond to Crash Claiming One of Own

--

Sept. 18--When the Oak Grove-Thach Volunteer Fire Department responded to a wreck early Saturday, members didn't know the victim would be one of their own.

The single-vehicle crash at 3 a.m. on Holt Road about six miles south of Ardmore killed Joshua James Adams, 25, of Athens, authorities said.

Fire Chief Charles Claunch said Adams had served with the department for more than a year.

Visitation will be noon Monday at Limestone Chapel.

Services will be at 2 p.m. with burial in Limestone Memory Garden.

Troopers said Adams was driving a 2003 Chevrolet S-10 pickup.

They said he was not wearing a seat belt.

The coroner was not available for comment and a trooper spokesman did not return calls for more detail.

Claunch said Adams apparently lost control of the vehicle, went across a ditch and through a mesh-wire fence, hit some trees and flipped into a pasture.

"The truck came to rest on the passenger side," Claunch said. "He was dead on our arrival."

Capt. Julie Lewter, an emergency medical technician and one of the first firefighters on the scene, said she didn't initially realize the driver was Adams because his face wasn't visible.

"I was standing by the fence and kept looking at that truck, knowing I had seen it," she said. "Then I realized it was Joshua. That came as a shock."

Lewter said Adams lived nearby on Sharp Road.

She said he had lived near her until about three months ago when he moved in with his parents.

He was the only child of Janice and James David Adams.

Janice Adams said her son took a shower Friday night while she ironed his shirt at their single-wide mobile home between Athens and Ardmore.

"My husband was playing on the computer and I was sitting on our bed," she said. "Joshua came in and sat down next to me. He hugged me and kissed me on the side of my face, and told me he loved me.

"He got up and did a little jig, cutting up like boys will do. He got back to his bedroom door, turned around and looked at me and grinned. That's the last time I saw him until Saturday morning at the funeral home."

She said her son was a private person and started a new job in Elkmont about two weeks ago.

"He attended Elkmont High School," she said. "He didn't graduate but later earned his (General Education Development) diploma. He loved to watch Alabama football, and he liked to bowl. I'm not sure where he was going when the accident happened or where he had been."