Fort Worth firefighter killed in car crash

FORT WORTH, Texas - A Fort Worth firefighter was killed in an off-duty car accident.

Andrew Heimer, 42, was killed in an off-duty crash Monday near Cresson, which is 25 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

DPS says a 51-year-old driver lost control of her pickup and crossed over into Heimer’s westbound lane on Highway 377. DPS says the truck crashed head on into Heimer’s pickup. He died at the scene. The other driver went to the hospital. What caused the first truck to veer across the median is still under investigation.

“He was the cornerstone of this station, I’ll tell you that,” said Capt. Gerardo Flores with Fort Worth Fire Station 12. “If you have a fellow employee who works so hard it makes you want to work just as hard, somebody who cared about the community and people… that man was Heimer.”

A former Marine and a 12-year veteran of the Fort Worth Fire Department, Heimer worked the a-shift at Station 12. He has a wife and two children.

“Big mountain of a man he was. Totally surprised,” Flores said. “Made me want to talk to my son more as we worked together. Sad situation thinking about his boys.”

Firefighters remember Heimer as a man who was proud of his profession. It was something that showed in the fire academy.

“Andrew came in as a former Marine. You knew he was going to make it. No question. He set his mind to do it,” said Mike Drivdahl, a former academy classmate. “You could have given him a tiny ball peen hammer and he would have gone through a brick wall. He had more fight in him than anybody I knew.”

The Fort Worth Fire Department said Heimer joined the department in 2006 and worked on the city’s north side. He was married and had two sons, ages 6 and 9.