Pa. Rescue Workers Cope with Tough Call

For the firefighters and rescue workers who responded to Friday's car crash in Middle Paxton Twp. that killed three teens and injured another, the call was especially hard.

They knew these kids.

Corey Lee Gauker, 16, and Donald Carnes, 16, who both died, and John Kibe, 18, who was listed in critical condition at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center last night, were junior members of three local fire companies.

They and the driver, Kevin Beers, 17, who also died in the 8 p.m. accident, were all full-time students at the Dauphin County Technical School.

"Our department assisted in cutting them out. They were familiar with these kids," said Rod Calhoun, chief of the Rescue Fire Company where Carnes had been a junior firefighter for about six months. "[Carnes] was good friends with the other junior firefighters, and it's hard for them to handle."

Kibe served with Susquehanna Twp.'s Progress Fire Company, and Gauker was with Lower Paxton Twp.'s Paxtonia company. Beers' and Gauker's home school was Central Dauphin High School; Kibe and Carnes attended Susquehanna Twp. High School, said Jim Crane, the Vo-Tech's principal.

State police said the four were apparently returning from a hiking trip when the accident occurred. Speed might have been a factor, but there was no evidence of drinking, said Karl Schmidhamer, a state police spokesman.

According to police, Beers was driving west in the 1600 block of Clarks Valley Road when he drove onto the gravel berm, then lost control after coming back onto the road. His Mitsubishi Eclipse crossed both lanes, struck a guardrail, then went airborne, landing on its roof in a gully, police said.

Corey Gauker Sr. said the four -- and a fifth friend who was driving in a car behind them and saw the wreck -- were close friends who enjoyed hiking on weekends.

"They loved each other," Corey Gauker said. "They spent all their time together."

He said his son wanted to be a New York City firefighter ever since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Corey Gauker said students and firefighters have been a great source of comfort to the families. On Thursday, he said, his son will take his final ride.

"He will be taken to rest in the engine he loved," Corey Gauker said.

Calhoun said Carnes was "a very energetic young boy with a lot of interest in the fire department."

According to George Drees, the Susquehanna Twp. fire marshal, the tragedy is tearing firefighters apart emotionally.

Drees said the Dauphin County Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team held a meeting Friday night to help them deal with their grief.

Donald Smith, assistant principal at the Vo-Tech, was on one of the ambulance crews responding to the scene, Crane said.

Smith and the boys' instructors are all "really shaken up right now," Crane said. "They are physically and emotionally exhausted."

Beers, a junior, and Carnes, a sophomore, were in the building construction program, as is Kibe. Gauker was learning automobile repair.

Crane said grief counselors will be at the Vo-Tech tomorrow, and he has spoken with superintendents at the home schools who will provide similar help. The Vo-Tech will probably have a memorial service but administrators are waiting to hear about funeral plans and the families' wishes.

"I didn't sleep much last night," Crane said. "I just tossed and turned thinking about those families.

" This is the worst tragedy since I've been in the school, and that's 34 years," Crane said. "We've never lost three at once."

For Rescue firefighters, this is a second blow.

On April 15, Adam Golden, 20, of Mechanicsburg, was killed when he drove his SUV in front of a fire truck, which overturned and injured three firefighters.

Calhoun said he and other firefighters were returning from Wisconsin on an airplane after inspecting their new fire truck when Friday's accident took place. They learned about it when they were allowed to turn on their cell phones after landing in Harrisburg.