and the world watched all day as dive teams went into the river searching for victims among the audience First Responders right here in Milwaukee Sam Cramer joins us live now from the homebridge tonight and Sam they're looking at this through a different lens hi there Ben it's really a lens of self-reflection there's an inherent risk with just about everything the fire service does and departments rely on training to manage that tonight that training is in the form of discussions around Milwauke
e firefighters as far as what they would do if they were faced with a similar situation my first thoughts are just uh it's it's sort of overwhelming inside firehouses around the city of Milwaukee it's the story everyone's talking about for a different reason our firefighters look at it and say all right well how do we address this what would we do Skyler belot is Milwaukee Fire's assistant chief of operations overseeing every facet of the department including its heavy Urban rescue and dive team
s he said video of the keybridge collapse Tuesday in Baltimore reminded him of a call here in 1999 that was just a young firefighter with a year or two on the job the big blue crane collapsed on Miller Park killing three construction workers and you kind of look and think well where do we start vot says the keybridge collapse only adds to the dangers dive teams normally face it's challenging enough because their visibility is low if we have a vehicle in the water we have entanglement concerns do
you have visibility a risk Milwaukee Fire knows well start your pattern after dive team member John kulie seen here during training this will be your last pattern became trapped on a call in 2018 while 30 ft underwater everything's flashing in your head then like please God do not let me die this way back to Baltimore beot says it's all about balancing risk and not just for the public we have to make sure that we're there to provide safety for the the the public and provide rescue operations if
possible but before we can even do that we have to ensure the safety of our own firefighters and beot says he expects the Milwaukee Fire Department to reach out to the Baltimore City Fire Department sometime down the road to hear what went well maybe what their challenges were what lessons they can learn from this experience that way they can apply them here also he tells us that Milwaukee Fire is actually in the early stages discussions with Port Milwaukee to train on some firefighting operati
ons there a lot in Milwaukee Sam Kramer foxic D it certainly get you thinking and you understand why First Responders are certainly thinking about this as well Sam thanks speaking of Port Milwaukee they are responding to the collapse in Baltimore saying in part quote Port Milwaukee is sending our sympathy to the Port of Baltimore Community following Tuesday's tragic bridge collapse our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those affected
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