Burrillville firefighter Ryan Ferris mourned
39-year-old died Wednesday from injuries sustained in four-car chain reaction crash on Broncos Highway
BURRILLVILLE – Longtime Harrisville firefighter Ryan J. Ferris had no father of his own, but he had Harrisville Fire Chief Michael Gingell.
And Gingell was by his side with other family members as the co-worker that was like a son to him died at Rhode Island Hospital Wednesday night after a horrific off-duty motor vehicle crash on Route 102.
Ferris, 39, was the man transported to the Providence hospital by helicopter after members of his own department freed him from the mangled wreck of his car, hours before he died, the police confirmed Thursday.
“We’re feeling deep sadness, great disbelief,” Gingell said. “Our hearts are heavy and we feel a great sense of loss. But I can tell you the men and women of the department are still committed to serving at a moment’s notice – as Ryan would have wanted.”
A graduate of Burrillville High School, Ferris was married, with two small girls, and had been a volunteer firefighter with the Harrisville Hose Company since 1995. He was also a former dispatcher for the Woonsocket Fire Department and worked briefly doing similar work for the consolidated police and fire dispatch center at Woonsocket police headquarters.
“He was a fine young gentleman,” said Woonsocket Fire Chief Paul Sha- traw. “From our fire department family our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”
Gingell said Ferris was more than a co-worker with whom he had a fatherly relationship – they were also neighbors. His daughter, Town Councilwoman Amanda Gingell, was so shaken when she heard the news of Ferris’ death – during a public meeting Wednesday night – she broke down in tears and left her seat at the dais in Town Hall.
Gingell said Ferris died at the hospital about 7 p.m. The chief was also on the scene when local paramedics, including members of the Harrisville Hose Company, used the Jaws of Life – a hydraulic saw – to free him from the wreckage of his twisted, pancaked vehicle.
With a hitch in his voice, Gingell said, “He was hurt so bad...but he knew we were there.” The moment was searingly ironic for Gingell, too, because just a few days earlier, the previous Saturday, it was Ferris who was using the Jaws of Life to free someone else who’d been involved in a vehicle crash on Sherman Farm Road.
For Major Dennis Leahey of the Burrillville Police Department, who confirmed Ferris’ death, the loss was also personal.
“I’ve known that kid since he was 10 years old,” said Leahey. “He grew up with my daughter. When something like this happens, it affects the whole community.”
Four vehicles in all were involved in the crash that resulted in Ferris’ death, and three other individuals were injured, according to Leahey. At about 2:40 p.m. Wednesday, members of the police department responded to the intersection of Route 107 (East Avenue) and Route 102 (Broncos Highway), where they observed two passenger vehicles with heavy damage in the roadway. Off to the side of the road, there was a large white box truck resting atop the crumpled chassis of a sedan – Ferris’ vehicle – with Ferris trapped inside.
In addition to Harrisville, rescue crews from the Pascoag, Oakland-Mapleville, and West Glocester fire departments responded to tend to the injured.
After a preliminary investigation, Leahey said, police believe that all three passen- ger vehicles, heading in a southbound direction, were stopped in front of a red light on Route 102 when the last of the vehicles behind the traffic signal was rear-ended with great force by the box truck.
The initial impact caused an intense chain reaction crash.
The speed limit in front of the traffic signal is 40 mph, but police have not yet determined how fast the box truck was traveling when the crash occurred, said Leahey.
Also, investigators are still attempting to pin down where Ferris’ vehicle was positioned in the red-light backup queue when the box truck slammed into them.
Leahey said the police have interviewed the operator of the box truck. But he declined to identify the operator or provide details of what they learned from the interview until the investigation is complete. Asked whether some sort of distracted driv- ing – cell phone use, perhaps – might have been a contributory cause of the crash, Leahey would not comment.
Nevertheless, Leahey said the police have not ruled out the possibility of bringing charges against the operator of the box truck. A decision will be made when the investigation is complete – within a few days.
“As is always the case, we will leave no stone unturned,” the major said.
Ferris’ death marks the latest in a string of fatalities involving local firefighters during the last several years, including another member of the Harrisville Fire District who was killed in a car crash.
In 2017, tragedy struck the Harrisville Hose Company when veteran volunteer firefighter Lawrence R. Castonguay was killed after the truck in which he was a passenger was struck by a car in West Glocester. Castonguay, 73, of Harris- ville, a firefighter for nearly 44 years, was one of the Harrisville Hose Company’s longest-serving members.
Veteran Pascoag firefighter Richard Jenks died last year while battling a chimney fire. The death of Lt. Jenks, 72, a 33-year veteran of the fire service, was the first line-of-duty death in the 114-year history of the Pascoag Fire Department, and only the second in the history of the fire service in Burrillville, which has four other fire companies.
The first was Lawrence Gingell – father of Chief Gingell – a Harrisville firefighter who died in 1986 at the age of 54. Gingell had responded to Harrisville Mill Pond for a report of a dog fallen through the ice. Gingell collapsed at the water’s edge as firefighters were launching the rescue boat.