ENCINITAS -- A crash that killed a San Diego firefighter early Sunday is the first fatal accident at the roundabout on Santa Fe Drive.

Officials said Monday, however, that the crash is only the second one reported at the intersection of Santa Fe, Rubenstein Avenue and Devonshire Road since 2004, when the city installed the raised circle in an effort to make the accident-prone intersection safer.

Encinitas resident Jerrett Baker, 33, died from multiple injuries he received after smashing into a streetlight pole, authorities said. The concrete pole crushed the cab of the silver Ford pickup Baker was driving.

Baker, who was single, is survived by his parents, Ken and Carol Baker, according to a county medical examiner's investigator.

He had previously worked on the fire engine and paramedic unit for the Valley Center Fire Protection District, said Valley Center firefighter Joe Basinski.

At the crash scene on Monday, someone had tied a volleyball and flowers to the jacaranda tree growing from the center of the roundabout.

"You were my best friend," someone wrote on the ball. "I'll miss you. You're always in our hearts."

On Monday evening, a group of about 20 friends and fellow firefighters gathered at the crash site pay tribute to their friend.

One firefighter, who identified himself only as Dave, said that Baker grew up in Encinitas and started playing volleyball at moonlight beach when he was 14. Other older players knicknamed him "The Kid."

He went on to become an accomplished volleyball player who represented his fire department in state and international games, including one in when he played in the World Police and Fire Games in Australia.

Other remembrances for "The Kid" were written in surfboard wax on the roundabout and the nearby sidewalk.

A North County Times story from 2001 names Baker as one of the first graduates of a paramedic and firefighter training program at Palomar College.

Friends said they are organizing a volleyball tournament at Moonlight Beach to help cover funeral expenses.

Maurice Luque, a spokesman for San Diego Fire and Life Safety Services, said Baker has worked as a firefighter-paramedic at Mira Mesa's Station No. 38 since 2004.

No one witnessed the accident, said sheriff's Sgt. Randy Webb.

While neighbors told investigators Sunday they heard what sounded like a crash between 2 and 2:30 a.m., the accident was not reported until many hours later. Baker was declared dead at the scene at 7:09 a.m.

The crash ended when the victim's vehicle came to a stop in the corner of a vacant lot east of the roundabout, Webb said.

With the pickup off the road, and with much of the debris from the crash landing in a parking lane, motorists would not necessarily have realized an accident had happened, Webb said.

Webb said Baker was driving eastbound, climbing a hill on the approach to the roundabout "at a pretty high rate of speed." He drove over the raised, traffic circle but avoided a large planter box in the center of it.

After clearing the roundabout, Baker's Ford climbed a curb and smashed a concrete light pole just east of Rubenstein Avenue. He threaded two small trees before his pickup veered back onto the road, then into the vacant lot.

By late Monday, a second memorial, which included a notebook where friends could write remembrances, had sprung up on the weed strewn vacant lot.

The accident remains under investigation.

"We have some information he was drinking at a local bar," Webb said.

When the Santa Fe Drive roundabout opened in 2004, some residents said they worried it would be unsafe. One other accident has been reported at the roundabout, a solo hit-and-run in March. There were no injuries, but alcohol was involved in that crash, Webb said.

The city is building a second roundabout on Leucadia Boulevard west of Interstate 5.

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 901-4074 or akaye@nctimes.com.