BLUE EARTH - Hundreds of stories - tragic, heroic and everything in between - emerged from the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis.

What fairgoers learned last week at the Faribault County Fair was that three former local residents were leaders in the rescue, recovery and rebuilding for the bridge fateful day, Aug. 1, 2007.

Cam Haugland, originally from the Walters, graduated from Kiester High School in 1973. He is the Fire Department and Public Works fleet supervisor for Minneapolis.

Jon Wertjes, originally from rural Bricelyn, graduated from Bricelyn High School in 1979. He is the Minneapolis Public Works director and traffic engineer. Wertjes was unable to attend the presentation as planned, but Haugland explained Wertjes involvement.

Dan Penny, originally from the Walters/ Mansfield area, graduated from Kiester High School in 1966. He is a safety officer with Carl Bolander and Sons Construction of St. Paul - the company awarded the contract to remove and rebuild the bridge.

John Fruetal, Minneapolis Fire Department Assistant Chief of Operations, also joined in on the presentation. He is originally from Jordan.

The three local guys didn't know they were all working together until later.

"I think it was weird," Penny said. "We found out we were all there. Each one of us had a part. A lot of people from down here go to work in the Cities. ... I still come home quite often."

The four each had a unique roll in the aftermath of the collapse.

The Minneapolis Fire Department has 19 fire stations. Every single piece of equipment vacated those stations after the collapse.

"We are not big enough to handle that bridge collapse," he said. "There were boats and cars and rescue vehicles coming from everywhere that I didn't ask for."

Fruetal kept watching the video clip of the collapse over and over - trying to determine exactly how many cars were on the bridge when it fell around 6 p.m.

"Many vehicles went into the water," he said. "What happened when the bridge collapsed - the four-lane bridge buckled (outward)."

Anytime the fire department is paged to a major scene in the city a shop guy has to go with, because chances are something will break down. Hauglan's department is what kept everything running.

When all the fully-functional equipment left the stations, Haugland needed to get other equipment back in them.

"People still had fires, people still had heart attacks," he said. So they had to quickly repair machines for other emergencies.

The 911 center began rolling calls to Haugland's desk of people who were offering to send generators and other equipment.

Wertjes expertise helped reroute traffic. Obviously the bridge was out of commission and people still needed to get home. Wertjes planned major alternate routes for Interstate 94 and State Highway 280. He also focused on the local streets and bridges around the area. Wertjes strategically placed the city's traffic control officers.

"He did some experiments on the timing of the stop lights," Haugland said.

Days later, Wertjes was appointed to be the city point-man to work with the Minnesota Department of Transportation on the planning, design and construction of the new bridge. Traffic counts were done 200 times and showed that volumes were 20-120 percent higher on surrounding streets - but with a smaller increase in accidents than before.

Penny's company received information at 3 a.m. that Sunday they were awarded the bid for removal and reconstruction. Cleaning up the 35W bridge wouldn't be easy.

"We didn't know where to start," he said. "Usually we work with planned demolitions."

One of the first things they had to do was help locate the remaining three bodies. Also, the day after the collapse the Minneapolis Police Department declared it a crime scene. People kept sneaking into the area, so Bolander Construction put up three miles of fence.

Penny said throughout the process they were careful in the removal of more than 60 cars from the bridge and water, and a nearby historic bridge.

"We didn't want to do any more damage than the bridge had done," he said. "We put in over 32,000 man hours with zero lost time. We worked 24 hours a day for about the first three weeks - 'til the last body was recovered."

He went into detail about how they cut and broke the bridge away, bundled up pieces and shipped them to a salvage yard - at least, what was allowed. Some pieces were saved for the investigation.