Volunteer firefighter accused of DUI in fire truck wreck

A Flower Mound volunteer firefighter was arrested and charged with drunk driving following a Tuesday night wreck with his fire truck and an ambulance.

John Thomas Barrett Beauchamp, 41, of Lawton, made his initial appearance Wednesday in Comanche County District Court where he was charged with a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence, records indicate.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Tyler Hedges was called around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday to a wreck at the intersection of Southeast Bishop Road and Powers Road and arrived to find the fire truck and a Kirk’s EMS ambulance. A deputy at the scene told Hedges he suspected Beauchamp, the driver of the fire truck, was intoxicated, the probable cause affidavit states.

Beauchamp said the ambulance slowly turned onto Powers Road and he couldn’t stop on time. Hedges stated he smelled a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage” which seemed to be coming from his breath and body along with red, watery eyes. According to the affidavit, Beauchamp said he’d drank a beer while in the pool at his home about 15 minutes earlier.

Hedges stated Beauchamp swayed and failed the field sobriety test. A first breath test showed Beauchamp with a 0.18 blood alcohol content (BAC) and a later test resulted at 0.17, the affidavit states. A 0.08 BAC is considered driving under the influence while a 0.06 BAC is the threshold for driving while intoxicated. Beauchamp was arrested.

There is no information as to if a patient was in the back of the ambulance at the time of the wreck.

Beauchamp bonded out of jail on $1,000 bail. He returns to court at 9 a.m. Sept. 20 for the sounding of the misdemeanor jury docket, records indicate.