Officials said on Wednesday that a tractor trailer hit a house in Maxatawny Township and almost missed two residents, leaving one person stuck in the rubble under the truck cab.

This is a statement by Mike Russo, the head of the Kutztown Fire Company, who was one of dozens of responders who helped rescue the homeowner Donald Smith after the crash on Monday night.

Russo said the house is just a few feet from the edge of Highway 222 (also known as Kutztown Road and Church Road) and has been hit by vehicles several times in recent years.

Russo said that the latest impact is the most serious. The driver's cab of the rig is completely in a three-story house. Donald and Linda Smith were lucky to survive.

According to the state police, the truck was driving north at about 8pm when the accident occurred, and the state police are still investigating the cause of the accident.

Donald Smith had just taken a drink from the refrigerator and walked over to take a sip when the tractor trailer hit the house in the kitchen and flew the refrigerator.

A kitchen counter hit Smith from behind and knocked him down, and he was eventually covered by debris under the truck cab.

When the rescuers arrived, they could not see or hear Smith, so they lined up and began to remove the bricks from him piece by piece until he was free.

Russo said that if Smith hadn't left the refrigerator before the impact, he would have been hit directly by the tractor trailer.

"He is still a few seconds away from here," the person in charge said.

He said Linda Smith was also lucky because she was in the living room next to the kitchen.

After the accident, the 62-year-old Baltimore driver Richard Crenshaw was trapped in the cab and had to be rescued by firefighters.

Russo said that Donald Smith and Crenshaw suffered minor injuries and were treated at the local hospital. Linda Smith was not injured.

The truck was removed from the home on Tuesday morning. As of Wednesday morning, Maxatawny township district officials have not decided whether the house can be repaired or must be scrapped, said Krisparf, a town district official and building code official.

However, Puff temporarily classified the house as unsuitable for living because the town is awaiting inspection by the insurance company's structural engineer. He said that work was also carried out on the building on Tuesday and Wednesday to stabilize and close it to a certain extent.

Puff said that in addition, the homeowner has applied for the demolition of the house, but the township has not yet taken action on this request.

"We've been there before," Russo said when referring to previous accidents at the address, including an accident in the spring where a car driver who hit a house was injured.

Hearing the severity of the crash on Monday night, Russo called a technical rescue team from the Lehigh County Special Operations Team, which included Lehigh and Berks firefighters, who helped ensure everyone was evacuated safely.

Russo said that upon arrival there were concerns that the house might collapse, but technical rescuers ensured that it was stable enough to continue.

He said that the response was as smooth as possible, in large part because of the teamwork between the people who came out of the results.

But Russo sympathizes with how terrible it must be for the Smiths.

He said: "It must be like an explosion."

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