The B Shift crew at Engine House 28, a St. Louis fire station in the Fountain Park neighborhood, knew severe weather was a possibility when the firefighters got to work at 8 a.m. last Friday.
Cody Carpenter and his co-workers went over the severe weather plan, which outlines everything from how to open the engine bay doors without power to how to get around if roads are blocked.
"It just changes our response plan a little, but nothing crazy," said Carpenter, who has been with the St. Louis Fire Department for seven years. "When somebody calls 911, we're still showing up. It's just differences in how we get there."
The crew was in the firehouse when the National Weather Service issued the tornado warning.
"The driver of the ladder truck saw it coming straight at the building behind us, radioed in immediately, and that's when it went down," Carpenter said as he reflected this week on their close call. "The first thing that went through my mind was, I thought we were going to die. It sounded like everybody always tells you, like a freight train is right next to you."
The twister passed within 100 feet of the firehouse, ripping branches off trees and taking down power lines. A 10,000-square-foot building across the alley almost completely collapsed.
Capt. Matt Taylor, the B Shift commander, said that sound made him realize the crew was in danger.
"It was very fast," he said. "We just started hearing the wind pick up and everything like that."
As soon as the storm blew through, B Shift opened the doors to the firehouse and saw buildings on the ground. Within minutes, they had cut two people from a collapsed house. A police car transported a seriously injured child to Children's Hospital.
Carpenter had seen the aftermath of tornadoes before in central Illinois. But Taylor, who has been with the fire department for 19 years, said he has never seen this level of destruction from severe weather. The storm killed five people and caused at least $1 billion in property damage.
Both said they hope to never be that close to a tornado again.
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