Toyota Honors Its Word, Delivers New Tundra to Hero Who Sacrificed Truck in California Wildfires
The nurse risked his own Toyota Tundra (and his own life) while shuttling patients to safety.
Earlier this month we shared with you about Allyn Pierce, a brave nurse who risked life, limb, and truck to save his patients form the deadly California wildfires. After Pierce posted photos of his burnt Toyota Tundra on social media, Toyota applauded his heroic actions and offered to replace his truck. As of yesterday, Toyota has made good on its promise and delivered a new 2018 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to Pierce.
The nurse's old truck had been burnt into its crispy marshmallow-like color after Pierce drove it through the California wildfires (not once, but twice) to shuttle patients from his hospital's ICU to safety. In fact, the entire hospital staff worked diligently to set up a triage in the parking lot of the facility as it became engulphed in flames, protecting the patients until emergency crews could carve out a safe avenue away through the blaze for the workers to whisk away the remaining patients in a convoy of their own personal vehicles.
Pierce's last Tundra was lightly customized to meet his needs. Though most of the mods seemingly held up, Pierce says that the next plans for his new truck include tapping in the folks at Rockstar Garage. Previously, Rockstar had offered to build Pierce's new Tundra in any configuration that he would want, as well as extend an invite to SEMA with the final product.
The actions from Toyota and Rockstar help to shed a small amount of light onto Pierce's situation. The nurse had lost not only his truck in the blaze, but also his job (both Pierce and his wife worked at the same hospital) and his home. His family's GoFundMe had also raised $28,104 over the past 12 days thanks to the generosity of 621 people.
California's latest round of wildfires brought out the bravery in many, but it's important to note just how devastating the situation was to those in the affected areas. At the time of writing, the two fires combined have consumed nearly 400 square miles since they ignited on November 8th, wreaking havoc on the air quality hundreds of miles away. Roughly 500 people are still unaccounted for, in addition to the 86 lives which the fire has already claimed.