An SUV crashed into an ambulance Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 1, near Ferndale, sending both firefighters and the SUV driver to the hospital.

The North Whatcom Fire and Rescue ambulance was returning from a call about 3:25 p.m. when a Ford Edge ran through a stop sign at the intersection of Kickerville and Bay roads, clipping the ambulance, said North Whatcom Division Chief Henry Hollander.

The collision whipped the ambulance 180 degrees and sent it careening into a ditch on Bay Road. The crash crumpled the driver’s side of the SUV and smashed its windshield.

“To me it sounded like a cannon going off,” said Larry Seigman, who lives in a house a few hundred feet south of the intersection.

The Ford driver, 56-year-old Timothy Howe of Blaine, was bleeding from the head, witnesses reported. Firefighters had to cut him from the SUV to free him. He was taken to St. Joseph hospital, but it wasn’t immediately clear how serious his injuries were.

The ambulance driver, 37-year-old Anthony Esser of Bellingham, and the other firefighter on board, 30-year-old Joel Sellinger of Blaine, also were injured and taken to the hospital. Their injuries were not life-threatening, Hollander said.

The SUV was travelling southbound on Kickerville, where the speed limit is 35 mph. It went through the stop sign at Bay, where the speed limit is 50 mph, and struck the ambulance that was westbound on Bay, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Howe will be cited for failure to stop, according to Washington State Patrol.

Both he and the men in the ambulance were wearing seat belts. Alcohol was not a factor in the crash, according to state patrol.