The Officers and Members of The Marydel Fire Company extend our sympathy to the friends and family of Justin E. Townsend and the entire Dagsboro Fire Company. The Dagsboro Volunteer Fire Department is mourning the loss of a junior firefighter. Justin E. Townsend, 17, died in a single-vehicle crash on Pepper Road, north of Selbyville about 5:18 p.m. Thursday. He was a passenger in a pick-up truck driven by John Morton Jr. Delaware State Police spokesman Master Corporal Gary Fournier said Mr. Morton was driving Mr. Townsend to the Dagsboro Fire Department to answer a fire alarm. According to Cpl. Fournier, Mr. Morton was speeding through a curve in the roadway when the right side tires exited the road. The truck went into a spin and struck a telephone pole before overturning onto its roof and crushing it on the passenger side. Mr. Morton was taken by EMS to Beebe Hospital in Lewes where he was treated and released with non-life-threatening injuries. The road was closed for more than four hours while the crash was investigated. In a statement released Thursday night, the Dagboro Fire Department said it was the first the line-of-duty death in its 69-year history. The junior firefighter was responding to an alarm for a woods fire on East Clogg Drive, just outside of Dagsboro’s town limits.