Two Hill Country volunteer firefighters who were also siblings lost their lives in a car crash on Monday while returning home from battling wildfires, Austin-based media outlets reported.
Austin ABC affiliate KVUE reported that a Maxwell Community Volunteer Fire Department (MCVFD) brush truck carrying Jonathan and Hunter Coco was involved in a collision with a female motorist on FM 20 in Lockhart.
“Deepest sympathies to the family of Jonathan and Hunter Coco, the two firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty in Caldwell County during a day of responses to wildfires,” Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG) Homeland Security Director Martin Ritchey tweeted.
According to KVUE, the City of Lockhart’s police and fire departments were summoned to the accident site.
The station reported that the brothers’ vehicle rolled over killing them while the woman sustained minor injuries.
Officials closed FM 20 from South Medina Street and Patton Road while the collision was investigated, KVUE reported.
The Lockhart Police Department (LPD) issued the unidentified woman with a citation for failing to yield right-of-way, per the station.
MCVFD confirmed the deaths and mourned the brothers on Facebook.
“The members of both the department and district are grateful to all members of our community who have shown their support and eternal love to all of us and the Coco family in this very trying time,” the department said in a post. “We ask, respectfully, that any showing of support and gratitude for our fallen members be held until further arrangements are made.”
Austin FOX affiliate KTBC reported that the firefighters’ passing left the Lockhart community devastated.
MCVFD member Samantha Lucas told the station the brothers were more than colleagues to her and the department.
“We babysit each other’s children,” Lucas said, per the station. “We take care of each other. We help each other. We’re not blood-related, but to us, those are our family members.”
KTBC reported that MCVFD is accepting donations to help the Coco family. They can be sent to P. O. Box 216, Maxwell, TX, 78656.
