On today’s MSNBC website there is a slide show depicting scenes from last night’s bridge collapse over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. The collapse is a major event both locally and nationally and will have huge impacts for years to come. Moments after such a disaster it is often people nearby that render aid to those most severely impacted, there was a lot of that going on from the video and pictures I saw on the news coverage.
One of Eden Prairie’s firefighters, Eric Meiners, appears on slide number 4 of the slide show on the website. Eric has First Responder medical training. Eric is in the white shirt on the front right of the shot, he happened to be driving by when the collapse happened and stopped to help out. You can see his orange First Responder bag slung over his shoulder, that is something we provide all of our firefighters that are either First Responders or EMTs to carry in their personal vehicles in case they happen upon a scene where they can use their skills to render assistance.
In this case Eric’s training and his desire to help resulted in some immediate care being delivered to injured people on the bridge. Eric has been with the fire department for nearly 6 years and reports to fire station one. Eric is but one example of the benefits that everyone gets by having trained emergency responders equipped to assist even during their “off duty time”. Nice job Eric!
