It takes a lot to shock someone who’s dedicated their life to being the first person called when disaster strikes. But in the dead of night on March 26th, 2024, nobody could have guessed the reason for the call, the text, or the knock on the door. WMAR-2 News interviewed emergency responders from Baltimore City and Baltimore County, who gave firsthand accounts of what it was like to respond that night, as part of our coverage marking the 1-year anniversary of the Key Bridge Collapse.
It's the middle of the night, and people are trying to reach you. Never a good thing, but not out of the ordinary.
"I happened to be sound asleep at home. The dogs started barking, and there was a pounding on my front door," Captain Shannon Stallings from Bowleys Quarters Volunteer Fire Rescue & Marine recalled.
Ring camera footage from Captain Stalling's home captured that very moment. A fellow volunteer firefighter can be heard telling him, "They have an MCI [mass casualty incident] at the Key Bridge. The entire bridge is in the harbor."
Captain Stalling responds, "Are you serious?"
The firefighter says, "Yes, swear to God."
Ring camera video of first responder alerting Captain Stalling of the collapse
Greg Wolff with Middle River Volunteer Fire & Rescue remembers his wife waking him up at 2 a.m., annoyed that his phone was going off at that hour.
"And I had an idea that if he’s calling me at 2 o’clock in the morning, it’s probably something serious. So I answered, and the first thing he said to me was, ‘Greg, there’s been a catastrophe. A boat crashed into the Key Bridge. I need you to get dressed. I’m gonna pick you up.’"
Hunter Burton was on duty for Bowleys Quarters. He got an emergency alert: "And all I see is it's saying requesting all boats to the Key Bridge. And in my head, I’m thinking, no way this is true. This has to be a false call."
It was one of those things you had to see to believe.
"At first I didn't think it was real," Carl Knight III, deputy chief of safety and risk management for the Baltimore City Fire Department, recalls thinking after he saw the video of the collapse.
"I live in Dundalk so I can actually see the Key Bridge from my house, and when I looked in that direction, and for the first time, in my 48 years of life, it wasn't there," Captain Chris Reynolds with Middle River told WMAR-2 News.
But there was no time for processing the gravity of the situation: there were people in the water, and nobody knew how many. That was just one item on a long list of unknowns.
"With something of that magnitude, before we want to actually put anyone in the water, we usually use our electronic devices like our sonar to get hits, which we call targets, to see - that way, we're not just diving blindly," deputy chief Knight III said.
"There was still power going to that bridge; it was still electrified," Captain Reynolds explained. "So the first concern was - we want to put divers in the water; we want to get people in. Hold up, there's a lot of voltage going through that, and we don't know where it is yet."
"There was a lot of banging, and popping, and ripples through the water because the structure had not settled," Captain Stalling recalled.
Those first few hours were like a guessing game. Too dark to dive, rescuers waited for the sun to rise, mapping out what lies beneath the water's surface as best they could.
But even in the light of day, the maze of metal underwater didn't look much clearer.
First responders recall responding to Key Bridge collapse
"It really looked like a jumble of sticks to me, like a forest that had been chopped down and placed underwater," Captain Reynolds said.
"You know like those jungle gym domes, it kind of reminded me of one of those," Wolff told WMAR-2 News' Elizabeth Worthington.
Slabs of concrete were mistaken for cars. Divers relied on their sense of touch to make their way through the underwater debris field. But they had one element on their side—the water was not only calm but cold.
"When we're dealing with colder temperatures and colder water, you actually have a higher survivability rate when it comes to drownings," Captain Stalling explained. "This incident was able to go on for hours with the intensity of - there may be a potential rescue. And it was impressive to see that nobody gave up hope throughout the incident."
Eventually though, they had to surrender, realizing it wasn't likely anyone was still alive down there. But the determination the divers felt for their new mission didn't fade.
"We all wanted to get in the water to do what we could do to bring these families closure. It's a sense of pride for myself, for my team, for the department. Everybody wanted to do their responsibility and then some," Knight III said.
Finally, around dusk on that first day of searching, they caught a break: a truck, believed to have two victims inside, was found about 25 feet beneath the surface. But the recovery would have to wait until daylight.
"It was a mess," Burton recalled. "It was terrifying to see that they were on that bridge when it collapsed. The only thing I could really think of is - I'm surprised that we were able to find that truck. The bridge was pretty much completely on top of that truck."
It's an image Burton won't soon forget. At just 19 years old, he had no responded to his first mass casualty incident. He's grateful that he was paired up that day with an experienced vet in the fire service, who had seen enough in his 75 years of life to help keep him calm.
"Because honestly I was freaking out a little bit," Burton admitted.
"This could be a 'once-in-a-lifetime' event for many of our first responders, and I'm sure the memory will stick with them for a very long time," Capt. Stalling said.
But so too, will the lessons learned. Young volunteers like Hunter now feel better prepared for the next major emergency. And fire companies are taking stock of their training and equipment. Bowleys Quarters, for example, is investing in a new boat, replacing an old vessel that wasn't up to the task on that fateful morning.
"So we know that if we experience that mission-critical event again, and we need all vessels on the water, we’re gonna be prepared and ready. This was a $220,000 investment into our team and our community." Capt. Stalling said. The funding was secured mainly through grants - from the Maryland Waterway Improvement Fund, the Baltimore Community Foundation, and local partners like Chesapeake Marine.
Capt. Reynolds said Middle River is also investing in increased training and improving equipment. "The lasting impact for us is that desire to want to be able to be prepared for the next time."
A next time they hope never comes, a repeat of a day that —depending on who you ask—was either a lifetime ago or just happened.
"It feels like it's been a decade," Wolff said.
While Burton told WMAR-2 News, "It feels like it happened yesterday, sometimes."
WATCH WMAR-2 NEWS' FULL REPORT ON THE KEY BRIDGE BELOW:
