SOUTH BERWICK — Authorities say a Maine firefighter was returning to the station after being called off a chimney blaze when he crashed the tanker truck he was driving into the woods.

Assistant Fire Chief Norm Chouinard told the Portsmouth Herald that the South Berwick firefighter was driving the 3,000-gallon tanker truck Sunday afternoon when the vehicle veered off a back road.

Chouinard told the newspaper: “This was not an emergency run. He was just driving back to the station.”

Stephen St. Hilaire lives near the crash site. He told the Herald that he heard the crash and rushed outside to find the driver conscious “but not really responsive.”

The firefighter was taken to a New Hampshire hospital. Chouinard says the tanker truck is likely totaled.

The cause of the crash isn’t yet known.