A day after their fire truck rolled down an embankment during a training exercise in Davis County, three Farmington firefighters were released Thursday from area hospitals.

Centerville police Lt. Paul Child said the accident occurred about 9 p.m. Wednesday as the three-man crew was taking turns driving a newly acquired truck along the rugged Fire Break Road that runs in the foothills east of Farmington and Centerville.

"The Farmington Fire Department had just purchased this six-wheel, 22,000-pound truck from military surplus. They planned to fix it up as a water tender for use in wildland firefighting situations," Child said. "They were training in how to drive it in the conditions they might face, in this case on an unimproved, narrow Jeep road."

On the last run, however, the truck came out of tight turn out of a small canyon and went off the road, rolling three or four times as it tumbled about 70 feet down the embankment and came to rest on its side. Two of the firefighters were ejected, even though they were wearing seat belts.

Child said the older military truck was equipped only with lap belts, not the additional shoulder restraints modern rigs use.

It took rescuers about an hour to recover the men.

Capt. Jed Done, 39, was flown to Intermountain Medical Center with head injuries, but went home Thursday night, according to Centerville police.

The other two firefighters — Capt. Rick Wesche, 41, and Paramedic Jay Barnum, 31 — were taken to hospitals by ambulance. Both were released Thursday morning, Farmington fire officials said.

"They were very lucky," Child said. "Given the size of this truck and where it went off the road, we could have easily been looking at one or more fatalities."

The fire truck was removed from the scene Thursday afternoon. Utah Highway Patrol inspectors did not initially find any mechanical problems that may have contributed to the accident, Centerville police said.

remims@sltrib.com