By Elisabeth Strillacci

SPENCER  — A woman reportedly driving home from work at 4:55 a.m. on Tuesday took a turn onto Third Avenue from Salisbury Avenue too wide and ended up hitting the Spencer fire house.

According to reports, the driver hit a street sign and sheered off a fire hydrant first, which slowed the vehicle down. The car left gouges in the sidewalk and damaged one of the shrubs in front of the building before hitting the structure between the two office windows. The captain on duty was just inside the second window where the vehicle hit, but fortunately was not injured. The car came to rest against the side wall where the fire trucks are stationed.

“Fortunately, the walls are made of two rows of blocks, so it absorbed a lot of the impact,” said Fire Chief Michael Lanning. “But on the inside of the building, there are visible cracks and you can see where the wall has been pushed in.”

The driver, Laura Mills Daniels, 49, has been charged with driving with a revoked license, and Police Chief Michael File said “there were no signs of impairment, and it is suspected she fell asleep at the wheel.”

It is unclear yet about how much structural damage will need to be repaired, but Lanning said the most important thing is no one was seriously hurt.

“The driver didn’t suffer any serious injuries but she was transported to hospital out of an abundance of caution,” he said.