ROCKPORT — By the time 5 p.m. rolled around for regular June 9 Thursday evening training at the Rockport Fire Department, firefighters had already been together for much of the day responding to multiple incidents that had them, as well as Police Officer Celjeta Bixhaku and North East Mobile Health Services, hurrying from one end of town to the other.

Through it all, and despite the sometimes driving rain and fog, there were no injuries.

But by the end of the day, Pen Bay Veterinary, on Commercial Street, in Rockport, was left with a gaping hole in the side of its building.

A transformer on the corner of Summer and Huse streets was destroyed by a fire caused by a falling branch.

Two vehicles were in bad shape after a car drove into the back of a pickup truck on Route 17.

And, a Central Maine Power worker — who had been tending to the transformer in Rockport Village — ended up lending a hand at the corner of Routes 1 and 90, where a Hannaford truck filled with groceries tangled with a low-hanging wire.

It all started at soon after 1:30 p.m., when a woman operating a sedan turned into the driveway at Pen Bay Veterinary, and instead of stopping, drove into the building itself, and the veterinarians’ operating room (no animals were in surgery at that time).

The woman had intended only to get cat food and return to Camden, but ended up being given a ride home by Officer Bixhaku, while her car was removed from the scene by Camden Exxon.

Not forgetting the reason for the trip to the vet, Officer Bixhaku also made sure a bag of cat food was in the cruise heading back to Camden, as well as the woman driver.

Then, not long after cleaning up the scene at the vets’ office, Rockport Fire Chief Jason Peasley responded to the transformer fire in Rockport Village. There, a falling branch had apparently caused a wire to spark. Central Maine Power was called to remedy that situation.

At approximately 3:30 p.m., an eastbound Hannaford 18-wheeler attempted to turn left from Route 90 onto Route 1, at the intersection near the old Market Basket. But a low-hanging wire caught on its roof, taking down the guide wire that supports the traffic light there.

Firefighters surmised that the wire was already compromised, either by wind or another vehicle, because the intersection is a common route for trucks.

While Rockport Fire Department called the Maine Dept. of Transportation to assist in fixing the state’s traffic light, the CMP employee who had fixed the transformer arrived with his boom truck, “and generously helped us so that we could get the road open,” said Chief Peasley.

Back at the Rockport Fire Station, it wasn’t but five minutes of rest before, “we heard them call Jeta [Offcer Bixhaku],” said Peasley, as Knox Regional Communications Center in Rockland, the area’s dispatch service, toned out for a head-on collision at the corner of Hope Street and Route 17.

The firefighters got back into their vehicles and headed over there.

“It wasn’t a head-on,” said Peasley. “But it was pretty significant.”

A car apparently rear-ended a pickup at that intersection. Both vehicles were towed away, and there were no reported injuries.

And just as the firefighters were starting to gather at their training session, and Officer Bixhaku was signing off for the day, a fender-bender occurred at a gas station near Pen Bay Medical Center. Sgt. James Moore was tending to that situation, said Bixhaku.

The Thursday evening training at the FD was to include practicing the use of air bags to help lift structures and vehicles during collapses, an apropos session following the Rockland death last week of a contractor who was crushed when a roof collapsed on him.

The firefighters also noted another building collapse, this time in Naples, where roof workers were injured after a building collapse at a marina/restaurant.

Reach Editorial Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657