By Abby Nadeau
Forest Lake Times reporter

At approximately 6:20 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 1 Scandia Fire and Rescue was called to assist the Minneapolis Fire Department in one of the most horrific disasters in Minnesota history.

Fire Chief Steve Spence, First Deputy Chief Jim Finnegan, Erich Kertzscher, Debbie Peterson, Mike Hinz, Ron Boesel and Bill Havener responded to the call.

When they arrived Finnegan said that they were directed to a staging area and the Washington County Dive and Rescue Teams met.

The Washington County Dive and Rescue Team is a collaboration with the cities of Stillwater, Mahtomedi, Scandia, Lower St. Croix and White Bear Lake. The members from Scandia were stationed upstream, just north of bridge on the banks and in the Mississippi River.

Kertzscher, a diver for the team for the last several years, said their group was in charge of two cars in the water that needed to be checked for possible bodies and debris.

One car was positioned nose down in the water with the trunk sticking out.

With visibility at six inches, Kertzscher said he stuck close to the driver's side of the car.

"I checked the vehicle and the rear window was open and there was nothing inside," Kertzscher said.

As Kertzscher continued to search the car he became very aware of a current that was working against him.

He said the car was on some sort of ledge and the current was running right under the ledge. As he came closer to the ledge Kertzscher said he could feel his feet being pulled out from underneath him.

"I had to come back up because there was a current that I didn't like," he said. "I didn't want to chance fighting it."

Soon after, by 11 p.m., all the divers were pulled out the water because of the growing current.

"The current wanted to keep pushing them into the bridge material that was in the river," Finnegan said. "It was a pretty dangerous operation."

Even though the group was only at the scene for a couple of hours, and not called back on Thursday, August 2, the memory of what they saw will last them a life-time.

‘Something else'

Finnegan said the whole situation was "an unbelievable site...very, very surreal."

Kertzscher echoed Finnegan saying "It was an amazing deal. It was something else."

Both men commended the Minneapolis departments for their work.

"The Minneapolis departments did a really good job, they had a good game plan," Finnegan said. "They were very well prepared for a major incident like this."

Kertzscher said that the dive and rescue team trains frequently and he said it was great to see the training work.

"Everyone had a role," he said. "Minneapolis did a really fine job."