What Happens If The Stillwater Lift Bridge Falls Down?

How are public safety officials prepared if the Stillwater Lift Bridge goes down with 50, 60 or 70 cars on it?

That's the question Ward 4 Councilman Mike Polehna asked Stillwater Fire Chief Stu Glaser during Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

Minneapolis wasn't really prepared for that, but they could use the dam to stop the water flow, Polehna said.

"We can't do that," he said. "So your going to have all those cars in the water. That bridge was open, so they could actually get out of the cars; here, your trapped. If that thing goes down, how are we prepared? How will we respond?"

The short answer: Call in the calvary.

"We don't have the capability in the budget to have a heavy rescue unit a situation like that would require," the fire chief said. "We have a dive team in place and we'd be ready to go. The County has their dive team and we would summon them."

Firefighters would also get Minnesota Task Force One rolling from Bloomington, because heavy rescue and extrication from collapsed buildings is what that unit is trained to do, Glaser said.

"It would be a multi, multi jurisdiction response," the fire chief said. "We would establish an incident command and we would run the scene the best we could.

"Would we get everyone out?" Glaser continued. "No."

It's something to think about with police, fire and public works, Polehna said. There should be a plan in place.