The following is a compilation of stories printed in the Eden Prairie News following the I-35W bridge collapse in August of 2007.

EP firefighter part of early response to disaster

Eric Meiners was driving home Aug. 1 from Duluth when he first heard about the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge on the radio. "... you just can't believe that it's actually happening, something like that," he said.

"Then I saw the smoke, so it became a little more real."

Meiners, a Eden Prairie firefi ghter, was returning that evening from Duluth on Interstate 35W. As a sales person who's on the road all the time, he's run into incidents in the past where he's had to use the medical bag he keeps in his vehicle.

But then, there's been nothing like the scope of the bridge disaster - eight lanes of rush-hour traffic plunging into the murky Mississippi River. Meiners was relatively close to the incident "so I just took off and decided to try to get down there as close as I could and if by chance, was able to get down there with traffi c, see if I could help out." He could.

"By chance, I just found a back way that took me right in there and I just grabbed my bag and ran down to the scene," he explained.

Meiners estimated that he made it to the scene about 20 to 25 minutes after 6 p.m. The bridge collapsed at 6:05 p.m. He got down to the bottom of the bridge on the east side and saw about 15 people laid out in a basic triage situation, he said.

Nearby, firefighters and construction workers were bringing people out of the wreckage.

Meiners did a quick check to see if there was anyone critically injured, and then came across a woman who had a double leg fracture.

He sat with her the whole time trying to reassure her "that everything's going to be alright."

Focus on your part

For an emergency responder, the world narrows at a scene - you focus on what you can do. Meiners noted that since Sept. 11, the EP Fire Department has been training to handle massive situations such as this. He said he believes those drills helped.

"You have an idea, the situation is massive, but you can only take care of what you're taking care of at the time," Meiners said.

When doing such training, he said "you hope that it never happens, and you anticipate that it'll never happen. But, when it does happen, it's amazing that that training just kind of kicks in and just goes on autopilot."

He said the responders were fantastic, "to go from absolute chaos to some sort of a command structure."

"To see that structure actually come together in the speed that it did, I was just absolutely amazed," he added.

Early in the incident, there were construction people on the scene, doing the best they could to calm the situation and bring some organization to it, he noted.

Meiners said he started "doing whatever I could just to ease the patients."

There weren't ambulances there at the time so "it was kind of a challenge to get the patients up to any sort of medical care."

Eventually a big truck that was nearby was used to move patients. They put a couple patients on the back of it and got a police escort up to the top, where they brought them to the emergency room of the Fairview-University Medical Center, said Meiners.

By the time he got back down, more responders had arrived.

At that point, Meiners said he didn't feel they needed him as much. So, he stood off to the side to see if they wanted any more help.

Meiners said the patient he kept watch over was evidently a dancer and "kept asking if she was going to lose her leg."

"I tried to reassure her that I didn't think that was going to happen," he said.

He's seen fractures similar to that; there's always rehabilitation, but they'll make it through, he noted.

The woman gave him the phonenumberof herfiancé, and Meiners managed to contact him.

He said the woman mostly was talking about her symptoms, more so then the bridge collapse itself.

"She was just, kind of in shock," he said, "just really scared about her leg."

"I just want to dance again," the woman told him.
Eden Prairie firefighter Eric Meiners opens a medical bag similar to the one he used the night of the bridge collapse. Meiners happened to be near the Interstate 35W bridge Aug. 1. He helped treat victims as they were being pulled from the wreckage.

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EPHS grad was running under bridge as it fell
As part of his weekday running route, Tim Mueller has run under the Interstate 35W bridge lots of times. And in spite of the noise, he's never given it a second thought.

On Aug. 1, that all changed as the loud noise, much louder than normal, was followed by falling dust and debris.

"I put my arms over my head and ran as fast as I could," said Mueller, a 2002 Eden Prairie High School graduate. Upon reaching safety, he stared back at the bridge in amazement.

"Oh my God," he said. "Oh my God. Oh my God. I must have said that at least five times."

Clad in a T-shirt and running shorts, Mueller collected himself and then headed back to the fallen bridge.

"It's not something you think about," he said, "it's just something you do."

In reaching the bridge, Mueller did what he could do to help.

"There was another guy sitting under the bridge when it fell," he said. "We got together and helped people get off the bridge. Some of the people we helped were the kids on that bus."

The magnitude of what happened didn't hit him until the walk home.

"That's when I realized how fortunate I was," he said.

After reaching his apartment, he picked up the phone and then turned on the television.

"I still couldn't believe it," he said.

Neither could his parents or his girlfriend, who had thought he was running the lakes instead.

"I would've called right away," he said, "but all I had was my iPod."

On Monday, Mueller viewed the wreckage from the Stone Arch Bridge.

He looked, but he didn't stay long.

"It's definitely something I'll never forget," he adds.

He also returned to running. "I ran under three freeway bridges today," he said. "They sounded noisier than I remember.

It's hard to run and not think about what happened," he adds. "I've been asked if I'll run the same route after they build a new bridge. I don't think I could."

Mueller, who graduated from the University of Minnesota in December, works for KPMG, LLP as an accountant. He moved to his apartment in the spring and has been running a 4¼-mile loop, which ends just east of the Interstate 35W bridge, since May.