Matt Jones interviews Louisville Firefighter who rescued woman from bridge

Louisville Firefighter Bryce Carden came on KSR to talk about the rescue of a semi-truck driver whose vehicle was dangling off the 2nd Street Bridge over the Ohio River.

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To be joined on the phone by Louisville firefighter Bryce Cardon he was the young man who helped rescue the woman on in the semi TR on Friday over the bridge Bryce I also hear you’re a UK fan so that’s even better how are you doing today I’m well how are you yes baseball

At Pikeville is that right yes sir I was at the University of Pikeville well good all right well so obviously I mean it’s got to have been crazy for you over the last few days I heard you were on good morning America this morning when you

Got up Friday morning let’s go back to Friday morning you get up Friday morning would you ever have imagine your last 72 hours no I would not actually I was joking with my wife because we have a one and a halfy old that doesn’t like to

Sleep too much so I was a I was a little tired waking up that morning I told my wife I said we’ve been we had been super busy here at the firehouse with just you know runs and house fires and everything throughout the colder months and uh I

Told my wife I said you know what I just want to eat two meals work out and relax I said I hope we don’t make anything today and then an hour later an hour later we get knocked out on that which I know uh at this Firehouse we’re

Extremely busy our engine runs about 4,000 calls a year and the truck company that I’m assigned to we 3,000 calls a year so I know that there’s never really any uh slow days around here but it’s it’s fun to joke and say well that one was probably bigger than the other so

Let let let’s walk through the day so tell me what happens when you get the call and then okay I’m going to play the dumb guy because I am on this stuff but I bet a lot of people are too so I’d like you to walk me through it so you

Get the call that something has happened then what goes into effect so um we run a we run a rescue company we double as engine two truck one and rescue two well the tough thing about this call is that engine two was at a training at drill

School across town uh we were actually headed to Kroger um because we go to the store every day so we were all out of sorts you know a little bit behind the eightball but being a rescue firefighter I know that you know I always have to be

Ready for the call um so we got the call you know initially that there’s a semi- hang off the bridge so you’re kind of getting your mind right like okay this might actually be something um when we get back to quarters where we grabbed our rescue truck from I went ahead and

Suited it up and uh Captain Ren turned around and said you know you’re my guy like get your mind right let’s go um you’re GNA be going over the edge you know essentially so I’m I’m running through a mental checklist in my head just like you know playing a game you

Know you’re uh you’re running through what you need to do you know all the all the Reps kind of lead up to this and uh I I was just putting the the situation at the right time and with good guys around me I was able to make it happen

So you arrive at the scene and then what they explain to people how you ended up sort of dangling there where were you where did you come from um so I as you said we arrived on scene I was uh I was the rescue guy and

Uh there was a lot of people TI up ropes we we used an aerial ladder and so I get to it you know they they start hooking me up and and uh raise me up and uh drop basically just Dro me down to her you

Know I was in the hands of the guys above me and it all comes back to trust you got to just like you know uh you know on a team you gota you got to trust the guys behind you that they’re going to get it done and um they hook me up

They dropped me down to her you know I made contact uh with the patient and she was just think so let me ask you before you get to the patient part are you nervous like or is this just like second nature I mean when they when you all of

A sudden are dangling and I know you’re locked in but you can look down and see that water like are you nervous well I think that um you know how it is like when you get an adrenaline dump or anything like that you just kind of that that second nature

Training just takes over we do a ton of training on this type of stuff it’s it’s called a pickoff the the maneuver that we performed and we’ve done it I mean in the host Tower we’ve done it off of buildings we’ve done a lot of training

It goes all the way back to when you first get your rope certification and um it just kind of you know we put we put it all together it’s just like I was telling a guy I said this is like being in the Baton cage taking a thousand

Hacks and then you get up there in the bottom of the nin uh your team got you to the situation you got Bas loaded and you hit a grand slam like that’s a that’s the best analogy for it uh like played a small piece and a big puzzle

And uh it all it all came together at the right had you ever had to rescue a person like in real life before um I’ve had I’ve had various stuff happen I mean uh we we you know it happens sometimes not all the time but I

Mean I’ve I’ve been a part of rescues before from house fires and stuff like that but okay never um never anything uh dangling off a bridge i’ I’ve seen guys you know the guys that came before me some of my senior firefighters make make rescues like this you know uh we had one

Where some guys were at a tower about 300 foot up and they they dropped a guy down and grabbed them so I’m not the first person to do this obviously the first person to to do it on national TV with with a 18 wheeler but um guys who

Have came before me have definitely allowed this uh allowed this to happen so you get down to the truck the the the truck and and you see her I assume she is terrified am I right like how do you how do you maneuver that and calm her

Down to where you can get you can get her so I get I’ve given a ton of praise to her which it’s it’s credit where credit is due she was a military veteran so she had a different she had a different sense of uh being able to hold

Her emotions I would say like um she was calm I I was able I could tell you know obviously anybody in that situation is going to be freaked out but I was able to talk to her and you know calm her down and say here’s what I need you to

Do to help me because without her you know without her being able to move her body and do some stuff like that then getting that harness on her makes it a whole lot more challenging and I have to crawl farther in the truck and that type

Of stuff so she was able to help me um you know make the successful rescue and I had to cut her seat belt off and do a few other things so it um it all just kind of came together she helped me and I helped her and like I’ve said on a few

Other things she started praying I was like I was like why don’t you pray for both of us because we’re both on the end of this uh ladder so we were a little bit of uh a little bit of comedic relief at that at that moment to be like just

Pray for both of us so when you’re the picture we’ve seen of the two of you sort of hanging there you’re both strapped in so on some level like once that happens did you feel like I mean I know you didn’t feel like it was over

But it’s probably a little bit of a relief right yeah it was a big relief I mean there’s a lot of variables that were coming into play that we’ve been talking about that um you know once you get back to top side you’re safe you know once we were both on that rope

Together obviously our chances of uh falling and stuff like that or dying or whatever you know worst case scenario turn into a dive operation um go the chances go down a little bit so yeah so all right so you come at you come down

Um then all of a sudden when does it hit you that it was on national television and when does the enormity of what happened actually hit you it it didn’t I left my phone at the firehouse and I I was joking I texted my wife and said uh

Semi truck over the bridge here we go and I left my phone uh actually at the firehouse whenever we were switching over the truck and so yeah that’s not a good way to leave it with your wife no it’s not a good way to leave it with

Your wife to live stream and she’s watching it and she doesn’t know that’s me on the Rope until about halfway through somebody text her and said hey that’s Bryce and she she was feeding our daughter actually at that time um and she she said that she just was like

Overcame with emotion obviously and started freaking out um but um but yeah it was it was a bad way to leave her but it was funny now you know looking back since everything was successful wow that is amaz I bet she you might owe her a

Dinner for that one or something um do you feel like it’s interesting you it’s interesting you said about her praying with you do you feel like you and this woman like have a bond in some ways from this I would say for sure I mean like

Like you spoke upon I mean this is a probably once in a-lifetime rescue you know and uh for her to help me make it happen and for both of us to be safe it’s a it’s definitely there’s there’s a higher power out there that was watching

Over us that day uh I would say a lot of people have mentioned it like I lost my dad six years ago uh suddenly it he wasn’t sick or anything he had a surgery that went bad and he was the biggest Die Hard UK fan he wouldn’t even I’m telling

You when I say he was big UK fan he wouldn’t even go to bars and watch the game he would sit at home and holler at the I’ve been there yeah I know what that’s like a lot you know I’m in Louisville so I got a bunch of Louisville fans around

Here so he he don’t like he has a bunch of buddies that are Louisville fans but as soon as that game starts he he was not he was not a fan of being around any of them so uh so he would watch it from home well listen I tell you this is true

Bryce since this has happened I’ve had probably four or five different people reach out to me that know you from different things and universally every single person has talked about what a good human being you are and how there was nobody better for this and you

Know in a world that like continues to be like at each other’s throats this is a really kind of neat moment for everybody to celebrate and I I really you know congratulate you also all your teammates you’re not by yourself on it but uh congratulations on what you all

Have done yes sir got to give a couple shout outs I got a shout out Jrock I got a shout out Travis Odell who’s a who’s a firefighter with me who watches this show um or listens to it I got a shout out TJ and then my buddy uh Trey Rees um

Who you probably know June bug re’s son who hit the game winner on Sports Center a few years back oh yeah that’s right I gotta I gotta shout them out those are some of my boys that are longtime listeners so um it’s