Ulie,

Let me know if you guys need additional dive assets.( Or any support for that matter).  We can help.

Joe Brocato
Md tf 2
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
  

----- Original Message -----
From: SUSAR@yahoogroups.com <SUSAR@yahoogroups.com>
To: SUSAR@yahoogroups.com <SUSAR@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat Aug 04 23:53:54 2007
Subject: [SUSAR] MN Bridge Collapse

To All,

As most of you have seen the major bridge collapse that occurred on
Wednesday this last week. MN TF 1 was deployed. 4 of our 5
participating entities deployed to the scene (Minneapolis by
default). The task force was deployed within the first 45 minutes
of the incident. Most of the pertinent details have been aired by
numerous news agencies. Suffice to say there was a high level of
activity for a relatievely short period of time. Initial rescue
activities were concluded by about 2:00 Thursday morning.....the
incident occurred at approximately 18:05 Wednesday night and all of
the injured had been transported by approximately 19:30 and the rest
of the operational period was used to search void spaces and
extricate some fatalities.

Chief John Fruetel, Assistant Chief Minneapolis Fire was the IC and
as many of you know is very active in the MN USAR effort. An
additional extrication was performed on Thursday afternoon
(fatality). Many of these were difficult due to the debris and
postion/location of the vehciles/victims. As most of you know the
Sheriffs dive unit is still performing underwater operations seeking
to recover an additional 8 missing persons.

Chief Fruetel has been exceedingly busy as you can suspect. The
Fire, Police, and EMS first responders as well as self rescued, and
bystanders performed many excellent rescues and cared for many
injured. I assisted Chief Fruetel and was the North Division
supervisor for the search and rescue operations on the north side of
the river.

This incident certainly has refocused peoples attention on the
infrastructure in this country.

I will pass on further information as it becomes available.

Thanks

Ulie Seal, Fire Chief, Bloomington Fire
Minnesota Task Force 1