Bridge tragedy ‘like a scene from a war zone’

AN IRISH student helping rescuers at the bridge which claimed several lives when it buckled and slid into the Mississippi in Minneapolis described the scene yesterday as “like a war zone.”

UCD student, Peter Friel, 21, from Rathmullen, Co Donegal, was working at his summer job in a garage 400 yards away when the tragedy happened.

“There was pandemonium,’’ he said, adding: “It was just after rush hour and a baseball game was about to start, so there was a lot of traffic using the bridge at the time.

“We heard a noise that we thought was thunder. Then the police sirens and fire brigade alarms started and they went on longer than usual.

“We quickly realised the bridge had collapsed. There was a huge plume of smoke. A lorry caught fire after it crashed into part of the bridge.

“There was also a bus full of 20 or 30 children. Miraculously it landed safely enough and the children suffered only minor injuries.”

Mr Friel teamed up with workers at a nearby store and brought a truck-load of food and hot and cold drinks to the disaster scene.

They were allowed onto the site and he joined the rescue bid, dispensing food and drink to rescuers and survivors.

He said: “Everyone was just focused on the task of getting people rescued and making sure everything was running as smoothly as possible.

“I saw the lights of divers searching for bodies and survivors.

“It was like a scene from a war zone. Everything was cordoned off.

“All the roads were blocked off. It was a surreal experience.”

Mr Friel said refurbishment was underway on the bridge.

He said construction workers had been scraping about three inches of concrete from the surface every day and putting it back on again.

There had been suggestions that this placed extra strain on the bridge, although it was generally accepted that the bridge was well constructed, he said.