A number of Minnehaha County agencies responded to the I-90 crash scene involving four family members killed.
Volunteer firefighters from Crooks and Renner were a few of the many. What we don't often think about is how they cope with this type of scene. One volunteer fire chief helps us to understand.
Crooks Fire Chief Mike Harstad has been with the Crooks Fire Department for several years. Even with the role he has, he can never prepare himself for a scene quite like the fatal crash, Saturday night.
"That's a nightmare I don't think anyone would wish to see," Fire Chief Mike Harstad said.
The Crooks fire crews were some of the first on-scene.
"We're all volunteers here and what we saw yesterday was some of the worst that we ever see. It's not something you easily get over. It was a very horrific scene. We're taking a lot of steps today and last night to help take care of our volunteers," Harstad said.
Like anyone else hearing about the death of a mom, dad and two children, it's just as tough -if not more - on those who have to see it first-hand.
"We get done with a horrific call, we have families to go home too. We just finished working on a family. It's hard not to make that correlation back to what you have at your own house. That just adds to the difficulty in dealing, emotionally, with that kind of call," he said.
That's why there's critical incident stress de-briefing along with individual and group counseling. It's a requirement for the Crooks firefighters and an opportunity for open dialogue about what they saw and how to process it.
"These types of emotional things stay with people for a long time. We want to make sure we give them the tools to help them deal with it personally, and with their families as well," Harstad said.
Crews from Renner and Crooks send their condolences to the family and friends of the Vollmer family.
